Sharing Toothpaste
by Robina Snyder
Summary: Jim never shared a bed with her, never spoke kindly to her, barely spoke to her at all. Colonel Moran was who she slept next to, who she spoke to, and who he spoke to.
1. Sharing Toothpaste

Molly leaned her head against Jim's knee. He was busy, sitting in his suit (rule one was that he was always working when he wore his suits), working off his tablet as he lounged in one of his artistically expensive arm chairs. Molly sat on the floor, still in her work clothes and lab coat. She'd gotten a simple text telling her where to come. She'd dropped everything and come running. This was how their relationship worked.

He hadn't spoken to her when she came in, simply focused on his tablet. She'd came to sit on the floor next to him. Today she was just a warm body in the room and that was fine with her. He'd allowed her to lean her head against his knee. She found it sweet. Physical affection had never been Jim's thing. If he needed her for a quick shag that was one thing (not a very common thing either, since he was fairly busy). That he let her touch him at all, that he let her press her hair (and hair oils) against his suit trousers told her exactly how he was feeling that day.

His fingers moved rapidly across his tablet. The only sound was his fingers, their breathings and the occasional sound of him lifting his rapidly condensating iced orange juice (in a scotch glass, of course) to his lips. Molly liked to imagine that he was playing Angry Birds. The idea amused her because she could imagine him getting just as frustrated as normal mortals when trying to get the birds to knock into something the right way. In reality he'd probably played it once, figured out all the physics puzzles on one go and finished the game, never to pick it up again. It was just a nice day dream, though.

She felt sleepy, but not bored. She didn't plan on falling asleep for two very good reasons. The first was that it was very rare that Jim would allow her physical affection by his hand. She didn't want to miss any of it. The other reason was that he wouldn't appreciate her falling asleep when he was demanding her full attention.

If she ever got half his attention she was lucky. He was working now, but he wanted her company and that was what she planned to give him. Still, she felt exhausted from a long shift. She sat still pressed against him, still in her work clothes, still smelling like death. He probably liked it that way, but it was becoming hard to keep her eyes open.

There was the sound of the heavy tumbler lock and Molly's eyes snapped open. "Seb," Jim said, not looking up from his tablet. It was a quick glance, but more than Molly had gotten. "Take Molly to bed."

Molly smiled a bit, shifting a bit closer to Jim's leg. He pushed her off with his knee, but she didn't mind. She lifted her arms as Sebastian Moran got close, and the large sniper bent down and scooped her up. Jim was feeling very kind that day.

"Colonel," Molly said, wrapping her arms around Sebastian Moran's neck and burying her face in his chest.

"Ms. Hooper," Moran said. His voice was much deeper than Jim's. He carried her back to his room and settled her down on his bed before slipping away. She took her shoes off, conscious that both Jim and Moran hated her wearing her shoes in their bed, then she waited. She did just want to lay down and sleep, but that wasn't her place, not yet.

Moran came back shortly and went to his closet. He pulled out one of his tee-shirts and a pair of his pants and tossed them at her. She slipped out of her lab coat and tossed it over a nearby chair bed starting on her buttons, going from the bottom up. Moran came over and started working on the buttons as well, from the top down. They met in the middle. Moran pulled off her shirt. She took off her shirt. He pulled his shirt over her head. It was far too large for her. She would have fit better in Jim's shirt, but he would never let her wear any of his clothes besides his ties.

"Lay down," Moran's voice thrummed through her. She say down, letting him pull off her pants and panty hose. She pulled on his pants. They were also far too big for her, but these had a drawstring on them. She smiled, sure that Jim had picked them, since Moran probably wouldn't wear drawstring pants, and both men knew that Moran's hips were far wider than Molly's.

"Did you have a good day?"

"It was fine," Moran said, stripping down to his pants and getting into bed. He held up the blankets for Molly to crawl under. He wrapped his arms around her and she pressed her body against his.

"Good night, Colonel," Molly said, leaning up to kiss the underside of Moran's chin. She could feel his stubble growing back in already.

"Sleep well, Ms. Hooper," Moran answered.

Jim never shared a bed with her, never spoke kindly to her, barely spoke to her at all. When they were in London she'd get a message from Jim and come running. Colonel Moran was who she slept next to, who she spoke to, and who he spoke to. He kissed her, he cuddled her, and they were incredibly formal. With Jim, all Jim had to do was look at her and she'd know exactly what to do with him. She needed permission from Jim to sleep with the Colonel.

She didn't think of it as being shared. She considered that they probably saw her like the tube of cinnamon toothpaste they stole back and forth from each other. They probably had a different woman in each city… maybe. She didn't feel special, but she didn't need that. Jim trusted her enough to let her into his and the Colonel's temporary homes. That seemed nice to her. She liked that.

* * *

**A/N:**

**This exists in part because Sashkash is awesome, and party because I honestly haven't been able to find any MorMorMol on AO3. **


	2. Assertion:Hypothesis

1. Assertion:

Genius craves attention.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty is a genius.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty hates being interrupted, bothered, or otherwise annoyed.

Assertion:

Molly Hooper is very good at not interrupting, bother, or otherwise annoying people.

Assertion:

Molly Hooper is very quiet and still when she wants to be.

Assertion:

Molly Hooper is one of two people Jim Moriarty allows to stay in his flat.

Hypothesis:

Jim Moriarty allows Molly Hooper into his life because she provides him the attention he needs without the noise he hates.

2. Assertion:

Jim Moriarty is human.

Assertion:

Humans at some point will crave company and companionship.

Hypothesis:

Jim Moriarty will at some point crave company and companionship.

3. Assertion:

Molly Hooper is human.

Assertion:

Humans will, from time to time, look out for their fellow man.

Assertion:

A good person is a human who will often look out for their fellow man, often the one who has the least.

Assertion:

Molly Hooper is a good person.

Hypothesis:

Molly Hooper will look out for others, especially those have the least or are in need.

4. Assertion:

Jim Moriarty is a wealthy man.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty became wealthy by playing the part of the consultant criminal.

Assertion:

It is not normal for a man to become wealthy helping other people break the law.

Assertion:

Those who normally help people break the law are normally at a lower rung on the food chain.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty is near the top of the food chain.

Hypothesis:

Jim Moriarty cannot be considered to have less than other men, or to be in need.

4. Assertion:

Molly Hooper looks out for Jim Moriarty.

Hypothesis:

Jim Moriarty does indeed have less than other men or is in need.

5. Assertion:

A smart business man makes it his business to find a need and fill it.

Assertion:

There is a need for the consulting criminal.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty is a smart business man.

Assertion:

A smart business man can go out and get what he needs for himself.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty went out and got Molly Hooper for himself.

Hypothesis:

Jim Moriarty needs Molly Hooper

Hypothesis:

Jim Moriarty is in need.

Hypothesis:

Molly Hooper fills that need.

Hypothesis:

What Jim Moriarty lacks is someone in his life that will care for him.

6. Assertion:

Sebastian Moran cares for Jim Moriarty.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty had someone to care for him besides Molly Hooper.

Hypothesis:

The need that Molly Hooper fills is not to care for Jim Moriarty.

7. Assertion:

Jim Moriarty doesn't share.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty allows Sebastian Moran access to Molly Hooper.

Assertion:

No one but Sebastian Moran and Molly Hooper care for Jim Moriarty.

Hypothesis:

Molly Hooper and Sebastian Moran are special to Jim Moriarty.

8. Assertion:

Jim Moriarty does not cuddle.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty is not affectionate.

Assertion:

Molly Hooper craves affection and likes to cuddle.

Assertion:

Sebastian Moran is an affectionate lover.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty does not share.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty shares Molly Hooper with Sebastian Moran.

Assertion:

Sebastian Moran can provide Molly with things Jim Moriarty cannot.

Conjecture:

Jim Moriarty shares to give Molly Hooper what he alone cannot provide.

Hypothesis:

Jim Moriarty cares about Molly Hooper.

9. Assertion:

Jim Moriarty does not give any more than what he is given.

Assertion:

Often he gives less.

Assertion:

Jim Moriarty cares about Molly Hooper.

Hypothesis:

Molly Hooper about Jim Moriarty.

Assertion:

Molly Hooper must care more about Jim Moriarty than Jim Moriarty cares about Molly Hooper.

Hypothesis:

Molly Hooper is in love with Jim Moriarty.

Conclusion:

Jim Moriarty cares about Molly Hooper because she provides him with things that he gets from no one else: admiration of his genius, quiet, and love. Molly Hooper loves Jim Moriarty because he is lacking the most love in his life.


	3. The Woman in His Bed

The first time Colonel Sebastian Moran met Dr. Molly Hooper he didn't actually meet her. She was asleep, tucked into his blankets and perfectly bare. She slept the sleep of someone who had no idea that stalking over their shoulder was a man who'd hunted tigers for fun. It was late enough that when he'd come in from his last job he'd just hope to crawl into bed and pass out for a few hours. His boss was so absorbed in his work that it was unlikely that he'd cared about the time or his bodyguard/sniper coming back so late. He'd wanted to avoid the conversation that would follow, which was likely to take more time from him sleeping than Sebastian had wanted at that moment.

At the same time, he didn't know what to do with a naked sleeping woman in his bed. He sighed very quietly and slipped out, going back to where Jim Moriarty was lounging on the sofa, working on some minor government tedium half a world away. Sebastian cleared his throat to give a bit of time for his boss to recognize him. Yet Moriarty didn't acknowledge him, He just kept typing.

"Boss?" Sebastian finally said.

"Yeah," Moriarty responded in a way that could have either been inviting trouble (playful, but still very wicked, meaning a mess lot of problems for Seb, but fun for Moriarty) or annoyance (also meant bad things for Seb, Moriarty didn't like to be interrupted.) Either way, Sebastian Moran was sure tah the was screwed.

"There's a naked woman in my bed."

"I had noticed."

"Why is she in my bed?"

"I didn't want her sleeping in mine."

Sebastian paused, sure that the implications of that sentence didn't mean the same thing for his boss as they did for normal humans. "Why would she be sleeping in your bed?"

"She tends to get sleepy after sex. You think a man kicks out? Pah, Molly's out like a light once the deed is done."

"Excuse me… I'm sure I heard this wrong. Who is Molly?"

"Honestly, Seb, don't you pay attention at all. It's all very simple."

"See, you say that," Seb said, glancing back at his bedroom door before looking back at Moriarty who'd clicked his computer shut. Shit, having a psychopath's full attention was never a good thing. "But If I didn't know any better I'd say you brought home a girl, fucked her, in my room no less, because you didn't want her leaving girl cooties in your bed."

'Well, I'm not sure there's such things as cooties, if that makes you feel better," Moriarty said with a smirk.

"So, you're telling me that's exactly what happened? You brought home a girl and screwed her… in my bed?"

"Well, I'd say she's a woman, but yes."

Sebastian's mouth fell open. He couldn't help that part much. It was about the last thing he'd expected and he caught it fairly quickly, though not fast enough to keep his boss from giggling at the sight. "Boss, your girlfriend is sleeping in my bed."

"She's hardly my girlfriend, though she is mine," Moriarty said with a rather feral smile. It amounted to the same in Moran's book. The woman wouldn't be allowed any other lovers and would come to see Moriarty when he was around. _Girlfriend _simply involved feelings that Moriarty didn't have.

"Sir, at the moment I honestly don't care," Moran said, ignoring the sharp look in his boss's eyes. "I haven't sleep it about 24 hours."

"That's what your bed is for."

"Your woman is in it."

"You have a king sized bed."

"You're giving me permission to share a bed with your woman?" Sebastian asked. He was not about to not be completely sure about this.

"It's just sleeping," Moriarty said simply, opening his laptop again.

"Okay," Sebastian said, sure he'd wake up to screaming, but at that moment he couldn't care. He crept back to his room, taking a very quick shower before rolling into bed. He thought about just sleeping, but he quickly found that the woman pressed herself against his side, cuddling in his warmth. Before Sebastian feel asleep, he slipped his arm around her like it was the most natural move in the world.

* * *

The second time Sebastian Moran met Molly Hooper was about seven hours later. Sebastian woke feeling a slight shift in the bed. He pretended to be asleep, but he felt the person under his arm stiffen, sure of him being away. He waited for a moment, but there was no screaming. Finally he did open his eyes, finding the woman staring at him with wide eyes.

"Morning," he said, pulling his arm of her.

"Morning… who are you?" she asked, drawing the blankets up around her. Sebastian appreciated it. He didn't know if it was modesty or self defense that made her do it, but both of them could be in serious trouble if he actually saw her body.

"Colonel Sebastian Moran, Moriarty's bodyguard," he said.

"Then why are you-"

"In his bed? I'm not. Boss would never share a bed with anyone. This is my bed."

"Oh," the woman said. "I'm sorry then."

"Don't be," Sebastian said with a shrug.

"I'm Dr. Molly Hooper," she said, smiling nervously.

"Dr. Hooper."

"Molly is fine."

"Ms. Hooper," Sebastian suggested.

"Should I call you Colonel then?" She asked.

"Probably a good idea," Sebastian said. He got up, going to his closet and getting towels, tossing them at her. "Shower," he suggested and walked out, heading to put together something for breakfast.

"Sleep well?" Moriarty asked, smirking.

"Fine," Sebastian said, going to find the eggs.

"You should be wearing more clothes than that in front of a lady," Moriarty teased, Sebastian only being in his pants.

"Well, it's how I slept last night. I'm surprised she didn't scream when she woke up next to a strange man."

"Only an idiot would scream in a situation that could get them killed if they alerted the predator," Moriarty said. "She's stupid, but she's not an idiot."

"If she was, then she wouldn't be yours," Sebastian said, having heard Moriarty tell him that about himself before. That was fine, whatever. "Is she going to be around often?"

"Seb, are you jealous?"

Sebastian turned around so his boss could see him roll his eyes. "I need to know who's going to be around you. I am your bodyguard, after all."

"You're no fun in the morning."

"I thought I was no fun period."

"You can be when I'm in the right mood."

Sebastian didn't respond, just focused on the eggs. He'd dress after Ms. Hooper got out of the shower, and eat around the getting dressed part. He made a third more eggs than he normally would, and two extra slices of toast just in case, which took all of about ten minutes. It took him maybe ten minutes to eat, which was long enough for Ms. Hooper to wash herself and get dressed again.

Sebastian glanced up at her, amused by the dowdiness of her wardrobe. She smiled lightly, just so, a quiet private thing, only for Jim Moriarty. "Thank you for having me," she said.

"Eat something before you go," Sebastian said, getting off his bar stool to run his plate under some water, taking the extra plate off top of the one he'd made for her. He knew if he didn't say it, his boss wouldn't. Then Sebastian went to get dressed.

He took extra long getting ready for the day to give them both time to… whatever. He really couldn't imagine his boss as a romantic, but then he could hardly imagine his boss as the kind of guy who's have sex at all. The whole past 8 hours had seemed almost surely to Sebastian. He wasn't going to complain, not out loud anyway. He did have a certain amount of self-control and perseverance.

"Took you long enough," Moriarty said when Sebastian finally came out. Ms. Hooper was gone, her plate and Moriarty's in the sink with the Sebastian's.

"Didn't seem polite to spy."

Moriarty snorted. "Like you do anything else."

"Boss, how often is she going to be around?"

Moriarty glanced at him, looking for the real answer Sebastian wanted. "Whenever we're in London."

"Do you need me to set up a safe meeting location?"

"No, whatever flat we're staying in is fine."

"Is she going to be sleeping in my bed again?"

"Most likely."

"Should I invest in a sleeping bag?"

"No point, there's a bed."

"I'm not comfortable sleeping next to your woman," Sebastian said.

"You both slept fine," Moriarty said.

Sebastian gave up. This wasn't something his boss was going to get.


	4. Cooking Lessons

One evening while they were still in London, Sebastian found Molly Hooper in their kitchen. She was making a pasta… something. Even he wasn't exactly sure what it was, but a bit of improvisation could be good in food. Normally he cooked (someone had to, his boss forgot to eat with a startling amount of frequency).

"Hello Colonel," Molly Hooper said. "Pass me the vinegar," she said. He handed it to her and left the kitchen. He had no particular need to talk to her. He went to his room after that, content to leave dinner to her and to have a free hour to himself.

It became clear later that evening that he really should have stuck around. To be fair, the food wasn't bad. Sebastian had eaten much worse. It was just only acceptable. For a man who could consume sugary cereal at an alarming rate, Jim Moriarty had surprisingly discerning tastes when it came to cooked meals.

"This is awful, what did you flavor it with, dish soap?" Moriarty asked, glaring at Ms. Hooper, who was looking thoroughly cowed. "Why would you serve me something this bad?" She didn't answer. It didn't matter. "Sebastian, make something edible, something that doesn't involve pasta. I'm afraid this disaster has turned me off pasta for at least a month."

Sebastian simply did as he was told, leaving and angry criminal mastermind and an overly chastised doctor in the dining room. It took him about thirty minutes to quickly scrape something together, and the two of them were still in the dining room when he came back. No one spoke again that night.

* * *

Sometimes Moriarty went out on work on his own and left Sebastian behind. It didn't happen too often, but sometimes Jim Moriarty just wanted to go to Stratford for a week on his own, and Sebastian had other work to do anyway. Sebastian was fine with that. A week on his own could be a glorious thing. He didn't expect there to be anyone else in the flat while Jim was gone, which was why his heart slammed against his rib cage when he saw Molly Hooper sitting on the sofa when he came in on Wednesday.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sebastian asked, shutting the door behind him with his foot. Aside from the pasta disaster night, he'd slept next to the woman every night she'd been over. He'd slowly begun to take comfort in her presence, in the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she slept, of the way her hair tended to go everywhere and he was just as likely to be chewing on it in the morning as he was to inhale it accidentally. She had become a part of his life, but that didn't mean that being alone with her when his boss wasn't around wasn't very dangerous.

"I'm here to see you," she said, standing up.

"How did you get in?"

"Jim made me a key," she said.

Sebastian cursed. Of course Moriarty wasn't going to tell him that. "That still doesn't explain why you're here."

"I need your help."

Moran felt weary. Help could mean anything from want him to blow off someone's head, to asking him about what Jim Moriarty did and did not like. None of the prospects made him happy to think about. "With what?" he asked gruffly.

"Teach me to cook."

"What?"

"Teach me to cook. I know you wouldn't ask anything so obvious if Jim were here," she said. Sebastian glared at her, but she was right. Making Moriarty repeat himself was a very bad idea.

"Your food is fine," he said, walking back to his room. She followed him.

"He hates it."

"He doesn't like eating."

"He likes what you cook."

"He's only just used it."

"You cook much better than me."

"Your meal was fine, Boss is just picky."

"Why won't you teach me?"

"Do you think it's a good idea for you to be here alone with me? Does Moriarty even know you're here?" Sebastian asked, not looking at her as he moved around his room to change into non-work clothes. He knew Molly was turned away as well. She would follow him around, but she never looked at him while he changed.

"It's a surprise."

"He'll kill both of us if thinks that we're doing something behind his back."

"We're not."

"He only has to think it."

"I'll explain it to him later. Colonel, please, there isn't much I can do for him. I want to be good for him."

Sebastian sighed heavily. He knew, he understood. He wanted to do a good job for his boss. It wasn't just being afraid of dying if he fucked up. He wanted to be good for his boss. He wanted to be an employee worthy of working for Moriarty. He took pride in his work. He strove to be better. Understood that need to be good for Jim Moriarty.

"Fine."

"Really?"

"We'll start now."

* * *

Molly came by the flat every evening after that as they worked through different types of recipes. Sebastian quickly found out that Molly did brilliantly with fish and chips. It came from living over her father's fish place. It made Sebastian's mouth water to think of her fish. With everything else she was passable. Her sugar cookies were a little better than store brand, and the oatmeal raisin were good (though Sebastian found it hard to screw those up in general).

Her weakness came from the fact that she normally just threw food together for herself and didn't care about flavor. Sebastian had been like that until about the third plate of food his boss and thrown at his face. After that he'd learned to pick things up.

"Lasagna doesn't seem to be that hard," Molly said. It was Thursday, a week and a day after Molly's request for cooking help.

"Just make sure the noodles are straight," Sebastian said, walking up behind her and putting his arms over hers to guide her with the work. He'd done that a lot over the week, guide her, with his arms around her. He found that he liked the way she fit into his arms. She had practically lived with him that week, sleeping in his bed, in his arms after spending hour just cooking after a long day's work.

Sebastian knew it was bed how much he liked holding her. It was bad that he liked the smell of her hair. It was bad that he liked the way she said "Colonel" and the way she laughed. It was bad that he felt his stomach clench sometimes when he thought that she was only doing this for his Boss. It was bad that he found himself thinking that it was like the flat was their home, his and Ms. Hooper's. He didn't dare call her Molly, even in his mind.

Moriarty was coming home in a few hours, and Sebastian had decided that lasagna was a good welcome back dinner, that and the coffee cake they'd made earlier. Molly had taken a day off just to work on the meal. Sebastian had considered telling her just to fry fish, but it seemed a bit of a waste to have her make something she already knew how to do instead of working on something she'd been practicing for.

Promptly at seven, Jim arrived home. Molly stopped tossing the salad to go and greet him. "Welcome back, Jim," she said, as she came to stand in front of him.

Moriarty eyed her suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"Cooking."

"I thought we agreed you wouldn't be doing that anymore."

"No," she said stubbornly. With her heels on she was actually a tiny bit taller than him. "The Colonel had been teaching me," she said proudly.

Moriarty eyed Sebastian suspiciously, but nodded. He dropped his bag and went to the dining room. "Then show me," he said. "The main course," he ordered.

Neither Ms. Hooper nor Sebastian hesitated. Sebastian went and poured the wine, while Ms. Hooper went and fixed Moriarty a plate. Neither of them pointed out the salad that was supposed to be first. Moriarty sipped his wine, glancing at Sebastian in a way that made the sniper sweat.

"Here," Ms. Hooper said, setting the plate down in front of him.

Moriarty looked at it for a moment before picking up his fork and trying a bite. His chewing seemed to go on for ages. Finally he swallowed and took a sip of wine. "Not bad," he said. He went to take a second bite when his phone rang. "Hello?" he answered, getting up from the table and heading to his office.

"He liked it," Ms. Hooper breathed, looking stunned.

"He said it wasn't bad," Sebastian pointed out.

"Colonel, thank you so much!" Ms. Hooper gasped, jumping on Sebastian and hugging him, incredibly happy. She moved past him, back to the kitchen to finish with the salad.

Sebastian stood rooted to the spot, his heart hammering in his chest. This was bad, this was very, very bad.


	5. The Animal With the Brain

Jim slipped his hand once through Molly's hair, just for the novelty of the feeling. It wasn't interesting enough and he stopped after that. She lay nestled against his chest, awake but drowsy. It was his gift to her for making him an amazing fish dinner that she be allowed to have sex with him in his bed. Normally his whole room was off limits to her, but he had allowed her access. Sometimes the novelty of the differentness was important to him.

"Why didn't make fish for me the first time?"

"I didn't think you'd like something so common."

"When it's amazing, I'll like anything." He noted how Molly grinned so broadly. "Why didn't you make that and not the lasagna?"

"The Colonel suggested it would be better if I succeeded at something I'd been working on," she said.

"He does have a name."

"You wouldn't like it if I called him by his name."

"You call me by my name."

"You would make me stop if you wanted me to," she said, starting to shift away from him. He tightened his grip.

"Where are you going?"

"To bed."

"You're in bed."

"The Colonel's bed."

Jim felt a shot of annoyance and anger. "You prefer his bed to mine?" he asked blankly.

Molly stopped and looked up at him. She looked nervous, that annoyed him. Was she going to attempt to lie to him? She wasn't very good at it.

"Do you want me here?" She sounded so… hopeful? Jim hadn't expected that. He reminded himself that to the normal people that how they felt was important to them.

"You're not going to him tonight."

"Are you jealous?"

"Should I be?"

Molly smiled, and leaned up, lightly kissing his cheek in a manner that was far too sweet than a person like him to receive. People would think to kiss him like that when he played a part like Jim from IT, but no one thought to kiss him like that as Moriarty. Molly always did, though. "I am yours," she told him. "Just you. You'd never have me if it were any other way."

"Stay here," he said, leaning down and kissing her temple. He'd allowed her to sleep next to him when they'd been dating before she found out who he was. Jim from IT was a cuddler. Jim Moriarty hated having people, or anything really, pressed against him as he slept.

"Thank you," she said and snuggled into his chest. He had his arm around her. It was odd feeling his skin pressed against hers. She did much more to take care of her skin than she used to. That was smart of her. He was always very specific about what he wanted. Cuddling normally wasn't one of those things. It was odd to have another body pressed against his.

"Do you like sleeping next to him?"

"It's warmer than sleeping alone," she said.

"And the real answer," Jim said.

"I'm normally asleep when he comes in," she said. "But it's not a bad way to wake up in the morning. It's um…" She trailed off completely.

"It's um what?"

"It's silly."

"Is it?" he asked, feeling annoyed again.

"What I was about to say, it's silly," she told him.

"Tell me anyway."

"Jim."

"Tell me anyway."

She sighed. She knew an order when she heard one. "It makes me feel like you're taking care of me."

"To leave you in another man's bed."

"In your bodyguard's protection. It's like… I mean, I know it's just my imagination, but I like to think this way," she said hurriedly, apologizing beforehand for what she was about to say. "If you didn't care about me at all you'd take me someplace else or you'd send me home no matter how tired I was. I know you hate touching people," she commented, smiling up at him from where her head was pressed into the crook of his neck. "So you give me the next best thing. He'll never hurt me or touch me unless on your orders. I'm safe with him, but only because of you."

"You have a very active imagination."

"I know," she said, cuddling into Jim's body a bit more. It was like she wanted to soak up as much time pressed against him as she could.

Sometimes it surprised him that she wasn't as stupid as she seemed. She was stupid, everyone was. But she wasn't and idiot, not like the normal people. She observed things she didn't even realize were true. She was his, and he wasn't going to let her leave when she was too exhausted to make it home safely. He was the only one allowed to touch her.

Sebastian Moran was just an extension of himself. It made sense that Moran was interested in her. What other women did Moran ever deal with consistently? Moriarty's sniper tried to hide it, but he wasn't a very good liar, not to Jim anyway. Jim had known that Moran was interested in her since the cooking lessons.

The question now was how long would Moran hold out? Moran was an animal with a brain. He wasn't an idiot. He could figure out some very brilliant mathematics, but he never understood that's what he was doing. It was all mathematics when it came to shooting something, at least at Sebastian's proficiency. The sniper needed to figure out the angle, movement of target, resistance, air movement. It was incredibly complex on paper, even more so in practice. Moran could do it without putting the thoughts into words in his mind, but he couldn't translate his work into what it really was: academia put into practice. He was an animal with a brain.

Animals worked more on instinct than thought. What would win out? Fear and loyalty, or lust. Moriarty was curious. He was curious too about what his own choice would be. Molly Hooper belonged to him, but so did Sebastian Moran. Jim owned them both.

Molly was shockingly loyal for someone who still harbored a crush for Jim's archenemy. She didn't see Sebastian as anything but a shield that produced body heat. Sebastian saw her as a woman. If he touched her the wrong way, then he would be betraying his employer. Yet Sebastian was more necessary than Molly to Jim's work. Molly was a few evening's distraction. Sebastian worked for Jim.

So who would he chose? The woman who was exceedingly loyal, but useless? Or the man who was exceedingly useful, but unloyal? Jim decided to cross that bridge when it came time. He had more important things to worry about for the moment.

Molly had drifted off to sleep, but Jim felt like he was suffocating from having her skin pressed against his own like it was. He'd invited her, stupidly and humanly jealous for a moment. Sentiment cost him, it always did. He didn't make such mistakes very often, this was a minor one, but he was going to be cranky and grumpy in the morning from lack of sleep. Sentiment would cost someone else too.

He lay there for a while, tugged into his own thoughts, imaging math problems to try and distract himself to sleep (his version of counting sheep). It did not work, though. He put off body heat like almost no one else when he slept, so having another little furnace pressed up against him would be impossible. He gave up waiting for sleep around the time Molly reached her REM sleep.

He climbed out or bed and headed to the kitchen, considering what could help him sleep. He didn't plan to be as pathetic as to sleep on the sofa. Molly cuddled up in her sleep, so even if he were to get himself a different blanket and lay on top of the comforter she would still end up pressed against him and make him uncomfortable.

"Boss, what are you doing up?" Sebastian asked when Jim flicked on the light in the kitchen.

Jim glanced over at him. Sebastian was an insomniac when he wasn't worked so hard that not sleeping became dangerous. Jim worked him hard for a reason. Sebastian still being awake meant that he was worried. The fact that Sebastian had pulled out the MASH dvd meant that the sniper didn't think he'd be sleeping any time soon. He slept perfectly when Molly was pressed against him.

"You're awake," Jim said.

"I can't seem to get comfortable," Sebastian said. It was a lame lie, but Moran clearly knew that Jim would know what was wrong if he said he couldn't sleep.

"Take my bed," Jim said. It was spur of the moment, but then Jim was very good at improvisation.

Jim noted the way Sebastian looked at him. It was hopeful, hunted, afraid both of Jim and of Molly, and desperate, very desperate. "You don't normally let me in your room," Sebastian said. That was true. Moriarty never would normally let Sebastian in his bed for any reason.

"You sleep better with Molly in your bed," Jim stated.

There was that hunted look again. "Boss, I have never laid a hand on her, not like that, I swear to you. I never will."

"But you want to."

"Wanting isn't the same as doing, Boss, you know that." He sounded so desperate.

"Go to bed," Moriarty said, turning back to the refrigerator.

"Boss." Moran was hesitating.

"Don't make me repeat myself," Jim said.

"Good night, Boss," Sebastian said. He sounded resigned, a man looking toward an execution in the morning who has his last conjugal visit that night. Jim was curious, what would his employee do about that.


	6. The Man With All the Toys

As a general rule it was never a good thing to stir up trouble in Israel. As a general rule, Moriarty hardly cared. This time, though, it had cost him. It should have been easy, he didn't even bring that many people. They just happened to get caught in the crossfire between two other groups.

"So, which one do you want to recruit, and which one do you want to fund again?" Sebastian asked. They might as well have been caught in a gang shoot out. It didn't matter. Shit like this could happen anywhere. They'd been in similar spots before.

"Don't worry about it," Jim said, wincing a bit when Sebastian shifted the makeshift bandages on his arm.

"Are you sure you don't want me to kill them?"

"If anyone is to kill them, it will be me," Jim said. "Besides, revenge is a sucker's game." Sebastian was sure that Jim was quoting a cartoon, but he didn't think now was a good time to test his boss's patience.

"Yeah, just keep your head down," Sebastian said, pulling his jacket over Jim's head again. Jim didn't even complain. They'd used Jim's suit jacket and nice silk for bandages. Jim's undershirt was covered in blood from where his arm had been grazed, but mostly from Sebastian just hauling his boss the hell out of there.

"It'll settle down soon."

"Just keep your head down. Try and rest. You lost a lot of blood," Sebastian said.

Jim snorted. His arm had been grazed. It hurt, so what? Sebastian had been shot in the side clean through and he'd bled all over until he tended to his own injury. He'd ended up heating a knife and cauterizing his own wound just to be sure he'd stop bleeding out. His first priority was Jim Moriarty. Everything else came second.

"It'll be over soon."

"Sleep," Sebastian said, putting his arm around Jim, who grumbled but closed his eyes. He knew not to argue. Mostly Moriarty was in charge, but sometimes Moran had to be. In a military situation, in a situation that was about guns and knives and life and death and deserts, it was Moran's job to take charge. Moriarty paid him well for this, and he knew when to just let Moran do what he was paid for.

They were settled against a wall inside an abandoned building, the kind anyone would find in any big city, in the middle of a shoot out (the shooting had actually stopped, but Sebastian wasn't taking chances). Sebastian had pulled his bloodstained olive t-shirt back on over his bandages, but he'd put his thick jacket over Jim's head. Everything about his person at that moment was about protecting Jim, even the arm around Jim's waist, which he'd use to haul the smaller man up and carry him out if he needed.

Sebastian felt Jim shift a bit, trying to move away from Sebastian's body heat in his sleep. Jim really did put off body heat like a super nova. Sebastian normally would have let Jim sleep on his own, but he felt particularly jumpy that evening. The shots started up again and Sebastian shifted closer. His whole body was tense, ready to spring at the slightest provocation. At sunrise they could probably make a run for it, since the shooters wouldn't want to get caught, at least Sebastian hoped this was true.

He listened for other sounds once the shooting stopped again. He was waiting for the sound of pounding boots or the turn, or rubble, or even more shooting. He was listening for any change, even the slightest bit of difference to tell him what his next move would be.

There was silence for a long time before the shooting started again and Sebastian sighed heavily. He glanced down at his boss who was asleep pressed against his side. Sebastian smiled a bit. Moriarty was a very imposing man, even for his small size. Sometimes, like this moment when Jim was asleep, Sebastian felt an overwhelming fondness for the other man.

He couldn't quiet describe it. He imagined it was something like the feelings he'd have for a little brother: annoyed, caring, protective. Jim looked utterly innocent asleep against the Colonel's side. Sebastian felt his heart swell a bit. No matter what he said, this man needed him. Jim needed him to protect to protect Moriarty and his interests. Jim trusted Sebastian enough to tend to his woman and to keep his hands to himself.

Sebastian felt a stone in his gut at the thought of Ms. Hooper. What he wanted with her and what he could have were two different things. He wanted her, he really did. He didn't just want her for one night, but for her to look at him with a fraction of the interest she looked at Jim with. He wanted that when she hugged him that it would be with her attention on him, and not on Jim. He wanted her to call him by his name, damn it!

And he knew these things were impossible. He was sure enough about himself to know that he could seduce her away from Jim for a night, but he wasn't sure that he could keep here. He also knew how dangerous doing something like that would be for both of them. He wouldn't put her in that kind of danger.

And yet there was one more person to think of.

No matter what Jim said, Sebastian knew that in his own way, Jim Moriarty cared very much about Molly Hooper. It wasn't love, not in the traditional sense. Jim was very selfish. He liked to have the most toys, and the most interesting toys. Sherlock Holmes was essentially an exclusive and difficult new video game. Sebastian Moran was probably a transformer. Molly Hooper was different though. She was a type of toy that Jim had never had before, but probably wanted. Molly Hooper was Care Bear, plush and loving no matter what you did to it.

Molly represented some shift in Jim's heart. Above all else, Sebastian wasn't going to allow that to be broken. He cared about Jim too much to break whatever fragile piece his boss was working with now. No matter that Moriarty thought Sebastian would eventually screw up, Seb knew that he wouldn't. His ability to keep his hands to himself wasn't about self control, and it wasn't even about loyalty. It was about that special feeling he had sitting there in the dirt in the middle of a shoot out: annoyed, caring, protective.

Sebastian smiled to himself, looking down at the smaller sleeping man who was tucked into his side. The innocent look Jim wore was one he'd trust few to see. He'd let Sebastian see it because Sebastian had earned it, because Sebastian would protect that innocent part with his life, with his whole soul if that was what it took.

Sebastian leaned down, placing a kiss on the top of Jim's head, through the thick military jacket and Jim's hair. Jim didn't so much as stir. Sebastian knew it wouldn't. The gunshots silenced again and Sebastian leaned his head against the wall. Still three hours until sunrise.


	7. That Day

Sebastian hesitated for a moment, looking at the perfectly nice wooden door and the perfectly normal frame of a perfectly normal flat that he was about to interrupt. Did she even know? She worked at the hospital. Had she been on duty? Did she know?

His hand felt wrong as he brought it down to knock once. It sounded loud in his ears, a heavy thud. He brought his hand down again, too slow to be a natural wrapping, especially compared to his normally wrapping. It sounded too heavy again, but he wasn't even sure how much sound he was making. Again, for a third sluggish time he brought his hand down. This one was very loud.

The door opened, and there she was.

"Come in," she said. She didn't even ask why he appeared at her door step when he never had before, or how he knew her address when she'd never told either of them.

He came inside, letting her shut the door behind him. "Do you know?" he asked. The words felt wrong in his mouth, like another man's words. They felt like a quote from a movie, something that didn't come from his brain but that someone had purposefully placed there.

"I performed the autopsy," she said. Her tone was clipped and clinical.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

Molly reached up, taking his hand and leading him over to the sofa. She carefully pushed him down and sat next to him. He noticed how her knee pressed against his own, more out of not thinking than comfort. He noticed how her hands gripped his own, completely out of worry.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

"You performed the autopsy," he said.

"Sebastian," she said. He winced. The first time she'd ever said his name and it was a chastisement. She never would have said it if… he just really hated it.

"I'm fine."

"He was right you know."

"About what?" His tone was clipped, angry, defensive, military.

"You're a god awful liar," she said with the saddest smile. Her eyes were red. She'd already cried.

"Shut up," Sebastian grumbled, hanging his head a bit, gripping onto her hands tightly. He knew they were both right.

"Did you see him do it?"

"Yes."

"What was it like?" Part curiosity, part necessity.

"A final fuck you to the world." All anger, all bitterness, all contained.

"Sounds like Jim."

"Don't!" he gasped. "Don't say it, I can't." He stopped talking. It hurt, like a fucking knife through his ribs. He could completely believe that Moriarty would kill himself. If it got him what he wanted, Jim would have done anything. He'd even seen Moriarty do it… but it was one thing to know and another to accept it.

Molly's arms wrapped around his neck, rocking him, shushing him. He hadn't realized that he'd started to cry. Molly had cried already, probably as soon as she finished the autopsy of the man she'd been so obsessively in love with. She was done with it now though. Sebastian hadn't even begun.

Whatever he felt for Jim was wrapped and wrong and not understandable and fledgling. He didn't know what he felt about Jim; except that he knew he loved the man, how exactly he hadn't worked out. Jim was no friend, and he wasn't Sebastian's brother. Sebastian wasn't attracted to men, but he was drawn to Jim like a buzzard to carrion. He's lived off Jim for so long.

Molly had a life outside of Jim, it involved dead bodies and a cat and friends, and Sherlock _bloody _Holmes (who Sebastian refused to address with Molly ever), and friends, and Sebastian on odd days. Sebastian had only had Jim… Jim, and Molly when he was allowed.

He felt a terrible bitterness and a wish to plead to God to undo his wish. He'd been thinking how nice it would be to have Molly to himself, and yet he didn't want this. He didn't want this to be how he got to have Molly. He felt like an idiot for even thinking about God after all the shit he'd done in his life.

Molly probably believed, he didn't know. She might try to comfort him, but he hoped she'd never said 'he's in a better place', when they both knew that only hell could hold Jim Moriarty. There was no comfort. They knew who they were. They knew who'd they lost.

Sebastian just cried for a long while, unable to stop his tears. Molly soothed, gentle in the way her fingers pressed up into his hair, drawing his mind away from his pain and back to his bedroom where they would lay wrapped up in each other every evening she came over. He felt guilty, guilty for being able to be with Molly, guilty for stealing time from Jim, time from Molly, guilty for being alive when the man he was supposed to protect (even from himself) was not.

When he silenced himself into quiet tremors Molly tipped his head up, kissing his forehead. "Now we grieve, and try to carry on," she told him quietly.

"Where will they bury him?"

"Seb, if someone claims the body, they'll be on them so fast and hard… if you claim his body then you'll get caught too, all his work will fall apart."

"It will fall apart without him anyway," Sebastian pointed out.

"Then what do you plan to do?"

"I don't know," he said. He hadn't thought that far ahead.

"What'd you do the last time?"

"Bar hopping," he said, knowing she meant his discharge. "Tiger hunting," he added with a shrug.

"You could stay here."

"I can't work from here."

"Just for the moment," she told him. "Please," she added, grabbing his face between her hands. "I can't lose you both in one go," she said. Women were like that, being strong for their men even when they were cracking up inside. She was giving him a direction. It felt wrong, it felt broken, it made his heart clench to think of staying with her. At the same time, she needed him.

"I'll take the couch then?" he asked.

She smiled and he saw understanding in her eyes. She leaned in, pressing her lips to his forehead. "Thank you," she said, and he realized that she wasn't ready for more than that either. They were both grieving, Moriarty's number two guy, and Moriarty's only woman. For the moment they'd just need to take it as slow as they were able.


	8. That Day Another

Sebastian found him first… not really found, claimed was more like it. Seeing Jim stupid enough to put a gun in his mouth was hard on Sebastian. They were lucky he was even still alive. Sebastian had seen a man kill himself with blanks. Blanks were still dangerous within a certain range, and right next to someone's temple could still kill. A blank was still being fired, high impact and force localized into one point. At range it was safe. Jim hadn't wanted to kill Sherlock, but injuring him was all well and good. Jim probably thought that he was going to kill himself with that shot. Stupid bastard. He'd do anything to win a game.

Sebastian called the Hospital, told them he'd heard shots fired from their rooftop while he waited for the stupid detective to finish his phone call. He'd jumped. Shortly after people arrived and found Jim. He wouldn't have survived if Sherlock had picked any other location. Sebastian left once the bastard jumped, heading home to try and get whatever papers together that he could. He needed to make himself into one of Richard Brooke's contacts as fast as he could.

Molly came up to look at him when she got a chance. People knew she'd been a friend of Sherlock's, that she'd preformed Sherlock's autopsy. They hesitated to let her alone with the actor, but she was Dr. Hooper, and Dr. Hooper would never do anything to hurt anyone. They let her alone with the actor in the coma. No one even thought twice when she seemed to become friendly with the actor's best friend, Mr. Moran.

"He should wake up soon," Dr. Hooper was heard to say, stroking the man's arm. Mr. Moran would nod along, looking depressed. No one thought twice about the small woman comforting the large ex-soldier (they'd heard her call him Colonel often enough). It didn't even surprise them much that she came to check on the actor. Even she said that Sherlock Holmes was a fake. She must have felt sorry for the man who'd been harmed in the process.

Molly was the one who came at odd hours to visit, because she could and no one would question it. Neither of them were sure when he could wake up, but they wanted someone to be there. Oddly enough, it was both of them. Molly had drifted off, her head next to Jim's hand. Sebastian had gone to get coffee for the both of them, and entered the room only shortly after Jim woke up. He was greeted with the sight of Jim Moriarty stroking the head of Ms. Hooper, who leaned into the touch as she slept.

"Who is this?" Jim asked.

"Molly Hooper," Sebastian said. "Your woman," he added. He felt his gut clench, wondering if he should tell Jim that if he didn't remember… no, when Jim remembered he'd be pissed at Seb if he found out his bodyguard had lied.

Jim looked down at the woman still asleep at his side. He continued to stroke her hair in an affectionate gesture that made Sebastian's gut clench even more. It was too intimate for his boss. Sebastian shouldn't be seeing this.

"Who are you?" Jim asked and Sebastian's stomach dropped right out. Before he could answer Molly started to stir. She shifted and turned. She grinned broadly when she saw Jim sitting up, stroking her hair. Apparently Jim had sat himself up when he awoke, not willing to put up with the indignity of being made to lay down.

"Hey," Molly said, not really sitting up. She didn't want Jim to pull his hand away. His affection with her was so sparse. Jim seemed to notice this. Instead of pulling his hand away he moved his hand lower, stroking Molly's cheek. "Are you okay?" she asked. Her eyes had narrowed a bit, sitting up.

"I'm sorry Molly, but I'm afraid I don't remember you," Jim said, letting his hand fall.

"Jim," She said softly.

"Is that my name?" Jim asked. He seemed to say it more because that was expected than he actually needed to.

"Yes," Molly said. "but you're Richard while you're here."

"Why?" he asked.

"We promise to tell you when you can go home," Molly told him, smiling when he pouted.

"How did I get here?"

"Stupidity," Sebastian said, earning a shiver-inducing glare from Jim.

"You didn't tell me who you were."

"Colonel Sebastian Moran," Molly said, turning to look at Sebastian as well who still had two cups of coffee in his hands. She reached out, taking one. "Thank you Colonel," she said politely, sipping her coffee before setting it down on the table next to Jim's bed.

"Tell me what name I'm signed in under," he said to Sebastian. It was an order.

"Richard Brooke," Sebastian answered.

"Reichenbach," Jim said. His eyes slipped out of focus and then returned to them. "Richard, call me Richard," he told them. "When can I get out of here? Hospitals are dull."

"The doctors have to discharge you," Molly said.

"You're a doctor," he said.

"How do you know that?" she asked. She didn't even have her coat on.

"I don't know. I just did," Jim said.

"I'm a medical examiner," she explained. Richard's eyes lit up.

"Oh, that's much more interesting than a regular doctor," he said.

"I still can't get you out of the hospital early," she told him. He looked very grumpy at that before casting a suspicious eye at Sebastian. It was an odd thing, because Jim seemed to trust him when he first woke up, but now all of his trust was on Molly.

"Can you at least find me a doctor who can tell me when I can get out of here?" he asked.

"Yes, I can do that," Molly said, standing up. She left, taking her coffee with her. Richard turned his head, watching her go, like a man would watch after his lover.

The second Molly was out of the room Richard's head turned in its slinking reptilian fashion, his dark eye focusing on Sebastian. "You want to tell me why you're sleeping with my woman?"

Sebastian felt his hear slam into his chest. "You remember it?"

"No, but it's obvious by the way your gaze shifts to her so often. Though she doesn't seem to care for you very much: barely looks in your direction even when mentioning your name," Richard said, every bit as cutting as Jim could be, though Richard explained a bit more than Jim would.

Sebastian swallowed. This wasn't Jim. There was an affection in him that Jim Moriarty never could achieve, but that didn't make this man any less dangerous. Richard saw Colonel Sebastian Moran as a threat to the one thing Richard knew for sure was his. If Sebastian didn't explain very quickly, they'd find his skin hanging from a flagpole and his skinless body in the morgue.

"You gave me permission."

"Did I?" Richard asked. It wasn't doubt, it was a question. Richard didn't recognize the man who gave Sebastian permission as himself.

"Jim did," Sebastian amended.

"Was he afraid of you?"

Sebastian glared. He wasn't going to have the man he'd been loyal to spoken about like that, even by… well, Sebastian didn't know how to explain Richard. "That would never happen," Sebastian said. "Even if I had the gun and had him tied to the floor. He'd never be afraid of me, or of anyone," he said.

Richard seemed to take this into consideration, taking the information about who he was into himself and figuring out who he used to be from who he was. "Why did he give you permission?" Curiosity.

Sebastian took just a moment, a very short moment, to gather his thoughts. "Your body puts of heat like the sun when you sleep. It's uncomfortable for you to sleep with someone wrapped up next to you, and you do not like to share what you consider yours," he waited, seeing the slight acknowledgement in Richard's eyes. "Including your bed. Molly slept in my bed because you didn't want anyone else sleeping in yours."

"Not enough," Richard said in Jim's most dangerous sing-song voice.

"I'm yours too," Sebastian said. That seemed to click something in Richard's mind. "You said that my sleeping with her would be like two Ethernet cables getting tangled in a drawer: a minor annoyance but nothing that made either cord any less yours or any less useful for their intended purpose."

"She agreed?"

"She doesn't mind. You're not a very affectionate man."

"Jim wasn't," Richard said, smirking a bit. "Come here Sebby, let me get a look at what's mine," he cooed.

Sebastian hesitated. This man made him edgy. He didn't know what about Richard was the man he knew and what wasn't, not yet. There was brain damage, that was sure. Sebastian had never thought that Jim could be any less unhinged, but he was starting to wonder now. He approached out of a sense of self preservation. If he didn't get close enough he was sure that Richard would skin him.

"Good boy," Richard said in a patronizing voice. He ran a hand up Sebastian's chest, making Sebastian feel very uncomfortable. Richard tugged lightly on the collar of Sebastian's shirt, and Sebastian lowered himself down to Richard's eye level. "Want to play?"

"Play what?" Sebastian asked. Years of the military and years with Jim kept him from hesitating when he spoke. Now was not the time to show weakness to a predator.

Richard's grip suddenly became iron and he dragged Sebastian down with a force that Sebastian only vaguely knew Jim actually had. Sebastian found his lips crashing against Richard's. When he made to pull away Richard only tightened his grip. The kiss was violent and controlling, like kissing a fucking war, and Sebastian felt a jab of fear so strong it felt like someone had shot him through the heart.

"Hide and seek," Richard purred, letting Sebastian go.

Sebastian straightened up, looking very dazed. He hadn't expected it. He didn't know what to do with it. What the hell had just happened?

"Back!" Molly chirped as she came back into the room. Sebastian jumped, but she didn't notice, her attention on Richard. "The doctor says he'll come check on your soon, but that they can send you home in a few days if you're doing well."

"Thank you," Richard said, beckoning her close. Molly came hesitantly. When Richard reached up and grabbed her collar Sebastian nearly jumped to grab her away. He controlled himself, though, yet waited for the war kiss Richard had just given him to be planted on Molly. It surprised him when Richard only gave her a sweet, chaste kiss that made Molly blush and giggle. "You will be there for me when I get home, yes?"

"Y-yes, of course," Molly said. "I'll make you fish and everything."

Richard's eyes lit up, most likely a memory of Molly's fish coming into his mind. "That would be perfect, Molly," he said. He laced his fingers with hers and brought her hand up, kissing the back. He glanced over at Sebastian, and the ex-army officer felt his skin crawl. He didn't know yet who Richard exactly was, but he was sure that Richard was going to be very dangerous.


	9. A Proposition

Jim knew that Sebastian wasn't a patient man. For a job, for his work, for a kill, Colonel Moran could be very patient. Outside of work, Moran was anything but. The first word Sebastian ever learned in a new language was never curses (like the normal, dull people would) or practical words (toilet being the most practical), but the words for speed (Hurry up, faster, quicker). When trying to get Moriarty out of the flat to head off to work Moran would start yelling in Russian. "_Bistra, Bistra,_" (faster, faster). Sebastian didn't like to wait.

This was why, at the end of a month after Moriarty confronted Sebastian about the ex-soldier's infatuation with Molly Hooper, Jim felt very comfortable with being surprised that Sebastian hadn't acted on his feelings for the doctor. Jim had waited for any sign of Sebastian's disloyalty. He gave Moran plenty of opportunity. Molly had been around a lot more since they get back from Israel, and had spent the past two weeks sleeping in Sebastian's bed.

Moriarty had noted that sometimes Sebastian would get up in the middle of the night for a few hours. It was a sign of weakness that Moran couldn't stay in bed with the doctor. Yet Moriarty recognized it also as a sign of strength. Will power was something most people didn't have. Moran had very strong will power, but he only used it for selected occasions. Sebastian had Molly Hooper pressed against him night after night, vulnerable and easy prey to the stronger man. Yet neither had succumbed. In fact, Molly Hooper seemed completely oblivious about it all.

On the first of the new month Jim woke at three in the morning to find Sebastian watching _MASH_ again. "Up to watch the sunrise?" Jim asked. Sebastian didn't even bother jumping, just turned around and looked at his boss.

"You know why I'm up," Sebastian said blankly before turning back to the TV.

"Too bad the woman and the bed are in there," Moriarty said, vaulting over the back of the sofa, plopping down next to Sebastian.

"Exactly," Sebastian said, leaning back in the sofa.

"You want me to send her away?"

"No," Sebastian said quickly. He froze, wondering if he'd just made a very serious mistake, then he sighed. "I'll take the pittance," he said.

"I'm sure most men wouldn't see such an opportunity as such."

"If, hypothetically, I were to sleep with Miss Hooper there are only three possible outcomes. One: You can kill me for betraying you. Two: you can kill her for leading me astray. Three: You can kill both of us, though I doubt that you will."

"You think very highly of yourself." Moriarty's voice was blank.

"I think that you don't see any point in getting rid of two of your own when getting rid of just one will do, especially when the other will remain anyway." Sebastian sounded exhausted, like he wasn't sleeping.

"True," Moriarty said. "Which option do you prefer?"

"One," Moran said, making Jim cock an eyebrow.

"Never a good idea to admit weakness around me, you know," Moriarty said in a taunting tone.

"Like I had another choice. Either I'm an idiot in love, or a coward. Frankly, I'd rather be a coward."

"Stupid men die for honor."

"And cowards die a thousand deaths," Sebastian said. It was an old argument, one they'd been having (in the most academic sense) since Sebastian came to work for Jim Moriarty.

"You haven't acted on it at all," Jim said, jumping back topics.

"No."

"You don't plan to."

"No," Sebastian said, taking the remote and pausing his show. He couldn't watch it with Jim talking to him anyway.

"You're a fool, Moran."

"I am well aware, sir," Sebastian said, glancing at his boss. "I'm not going to act on it. I wouldn't put her in danger, not that she would go for me over you in the first place. I could seduce her, but she'd hate me for it forever, especially if it turned you away from her. And most of all: I will never, never betray you for any reason. She's your woman. It was my duty, therefore, to protect her as well as you, and this includes protecting her from myself."

"You're very philosophical today," Moriarty said, a queerness to his tone.

"It happens when I become sleep deprived."

"Molly doesn't know."

"No, she doesn't." Sebastian hesitated, looking at the blank screen to avoid looking at Jim.

"You don't plan to tell her."

"I never will."

"Then I should, she who she picks," Jim said, moving to stand up. He didn't get very far, though. Sebastian's hand and shot out, grabbing his arm.

"Christ, Boss! You can't!"

"I can't?" Moriarty was smirking. That was a bad sign. Jim hated being told he couldn't do anything.

"Boss, please. You can't tell her. She can't know. If she knows she's going to want to deal with it. I'm handling it right now. I can't handle it if she looks at me and I see fear. I can't handle her worrying about being in my bed and what I'll do to her and what you'll do if I slip. I'm handling it right now. I'm happy with what I have. So please, for all that I have served you and have been loyalty you and will never slip in that loyalty, will just grant me this?"

Sebastian begging was fascinating. Jim could never get him to do it for anything. He'd never tried very hard, he didn't want to break his best sniper, after all. It was just a game to him, a puzzle. It fascinated Jim that Sebastian could beg like this. He begged for a woman. He begged for the merest scrap of affection. He begged to be able to at least look at something that would forever torture him because he could not truly touch it.

But Sebastian did make a few good points. Molly belonged to Jim completely. She lived her double life (friend to Sherlock Holmes, lover to Jim Moriarty), but she would pick Jim over Sherlock. This was why Jim found her so interesting. The perfect little girl picking scraps of affection from a man who couldn't love her and was a criminal, to a man who could provide her at least some acknowledgement and friendship (on a very shallow level) and who worked for the angels. Molly Hooper wasn't that different from Sebastian Moran, when Jim thought of it.

Sebastian was loyal, very loyal. When Jim inevitably would have to kill Colonel Sebastian Moran, it would be for a failure of a mission, not for lack of loyalty. Sebastian's abilities for fail him before he would waver from Jim's side. Jim realized he really wasn't being fair to his sniper. Sebastian was a better man than Sebastian himself believed. Violence aside, Sebastian was the perfect man for Moriarty to have. He liked (or at least could deal with) everything his boss liked. This extended to his boss's woman.

When Jim thought of it that way, it wasn't so much that Sebastian and Molly would be cheating on him. They were his, things that belong to him. They could were like his pets. Two pet cats mating didn't make them any less property of their owner unless their owner chose to abandon them.

"Alright," Jim said.

"You won't tell?" Sebastian asked, sounding hesitant, but relieved.

"No, but you will," Jim said.

Sebastian tensed. "Boss… please?" He sounded so desperate. Jim could see it in Sebastians mind: telling Molly. Molly's reaction (shocked and initially accepting, and kind rejection). Molly beginning to look at Sebastian differently. Molly refusing to be around Sebastian. Sebastian being denied Molly completely by Molly's own choice.

"Don't be so melodramatic," Jim scoffed. "You'll tell her, and ask her out for a coffee."

"I don't understand," Sebastian said.

"You two fucking is no more than two of my Ethernet cables tangling up in the drawer: a temporary annoyance that doesn't make either of you any less useful," Jim said, waving it off.

"I don't… are you… Boss, are you telling me to date your woman?"

"I'm telling you that unless I want her at that particular moment, you are allowed to do with her as you wish. Though, you should know that I don't like having damaged what belongs to me."

"I would never hurt her," Sebastian said instantly. It was a loving confession. Jim just stared at him blankly.

"Go back to bed," Jim said, taking the remote and hitting play again. At the moment Jim found Hawkeye Peirce more interesting than Sebastian Moran.

**A/N: A few (very quick) notes. You can read all of this on my AO3, though each chapter is its own separate story on that site. From here on out I will be playing with time a bit. The time lines split after Moriarty shoots himself. In one he dies and Molly and Sebastian go on with their lives. In another he lives as Richard Brooke. For a while I'll post one chapter for each timeline, followed by a story from the original timeline leading up to Moriarty's fall. I'm not sure how long I'll stick with this idea, but this is the plan. The next chapter will be a dead-Jim story. **

**Also, this was originally just to be a one-shot, but I started getting ideas. This has no real beginning or ending. I plan to do a couple of chapters in the whole timeline (before the split). This includes Molly meeting Jim for the first time. Molly's break up with Jim. Molly meeting Jim again. Sebastian telling Molly that he likes her. Molly and Sebastian's first 'date'. The dead-Jim story line will focus on what happens when one side of a love triangle disappears. The Richard story line will focus on… well, it's a bit hard to explain, but it's fun for me! **

**Anyway, I'm in Russia, so if you read my other stories, just know that I will update then eventually. I'm lucky to get any time to write at all, and when I update it's normally every other day, and you'll get 2-4 chapters at once. Every chapter is its own short little piece that fits into an overarching narrative. Thank you for reading. **


	10. I Love you, and other words

Sebastian's back hurt when he woke up. A night on the couch could do that to a man. He didn't really feel rested. His insomnia smacked him in the face even more now that he didn't have Molly to hold onto. He didn't have Jim's permission to touch her… as stupid as it sounded, he couldn't figure out how to get past that yet. He hoped that he could figure out how, and then instantly felt guilty for that thought.

"Good morning," Molly said, her voice quiet. She looked tired, and she didn't bother to hide it. Had she cried the previous night? When she was alone in her room? Or were her red eyes just leftovers from her earlier cry combined with a sleepless night. It occurred to him that in one day she'd lost two of the people she was closest too: Jim, and Sherlock _fucking _Holmes.

That thought got him up off the sofa and had him dragging Molly into a hug. It wasn't that he liked Sherlock Holmes, or that he felt anything but a very bitter happiness about the detective's death, but he hated that Molly had to be torn up over both people. She would be the only one. No one else could love both madmen. She had loved Sherlock _fucking _Holmes… not like Jim… well, yes, maybe like Jim, at least for a while. She'd been Holmes' friend. She got to suffer the loss of two people, not just one.

"I love you, Ms. Hooper," Sebastian said. The words felt weird coming out of his mouth. He'd never admitted out loud to her that during his waking nights he would daydream about her when he wasn't thinking of work. He'd never admitted how much he treasured their few dates, and the nights they spent cuddled up. He'd never admitted to her that sometimes he was so jealous for Jim for being the object of her affection that he'd actually think about taking his pistol and shooting Jim Moriarty's brain's out.

And yet when he finally got around to saying the words that had always been too dangerous to tell her, he still fucked it up. He'd felt like he'd pulled some kind of verbal slip. She'd at least called him Sebastian. He couldn't even say he first name. He felt torn up over the current situation. He felt wrong for saying the words under the influence of grief and exhaustion, and not whispered over a romantic dinner or between the sheets.

And yet Molly smiled up at him. She looked so sad, but his words seemed to soothe something in her. He felt her just previously stiff form relax and her thin arms slip around his thick body. She pressed her cheek to his chest, holding him like a cross between a stuffed toy, a favorite pet, and a real boyfriend. She just held him, and he could feel her chest rise and fall in counter balance to his. They stood there, just holding onto each other in a way that was more than just comforting, and yet less than just a warm embrace. Slowly their breathing started to align until their inhaled and exhaled at the same moment.

They didn't stand that way for very long. They couldn't afford the emotional confusion and complication. Molly unwound from Sebastian's embrace, and looked up at him, still smiling. "Come down here where I can see you," she said.

Sebastian snorted light and shook his head, bending down a bit. It wasn't his fault that she was so small. She'd always been perfectly Jim-sized. Without her heels she was a little shorter than Jim, perfect for such a petit man. Yet Sebastian was just very large. He was all muscles and strength, but he was very tall and wide according to what he needed to for his job.

When Sebastian had practically bent himself in half he smirked. "Now what?" he asked. Then he felt the soft and chapped lips press to his cheek. "Oh," he said, finding that he was blushing. He didn't do it often, but Molly seemed to make him do it more often.

"It took you long enough to say it," she said. She stroked his cheek and smiled at him. He waited for a moment, wondering what else she would say. Yet no other words followed. He straightened up and slipped his hands into his pockets. He idly thought that his first time telling a woman that he loved her could have gone better. She could have at least told him that she liked spending time with him. Too bad for him Molly wasn't disingenuine like that.

"So, breakfast?" Sebastian asked. His stomach clenched at the idea, but he knew he couldn't let himself just go to hell. No matter what he'd told Molly, he wanted to try and hold the organization together a little longer. It would all fall apart, but if Sebastian did a bit for work he could make a killing before it collapsed.

He'd never really cared about money. He still had a lot of what Jim had paid him, just because Jim also bought him just about everything. He didn't have any reason to spend anything, and Sebastian could become a lazy ex-officer and live off the interest of the money in the bank for the rest of his life, if he wanted.

What he really wanted… well, he didn't know yet. He'd play Moriarty's empire for cash just because he couldn't think of any other sane reason to want to break his brain trying to keep those tangled webs together for any length of time. There was a reason that was insane, but he wasn't willing to touch that reason yet.

"Oatmeal," Molly said, going to get the box of instant.

"Any good?"

"No, but then I'm only acceptable, remember?" she asked. That had been Jim's final pronunciation on her over all food preparation skills after months of work with Sebastian.

"My standards are a lot less insane than his," Sebastian said. He was carefully censoring himself, he could tell. He just didn't care.

"Yeah, I know," Molly said, pouring water in one of her pots. "I think… I think I can get you in to see his body, at least for a moment, if you want."

"If I want?"

"You'll have to come to visit," she said, the apology in her voice. She knew how he felt about dead bodies. He could deal with them. He was very good at dealing with them, he just didn't really enjoy body disposal.

"What happened to the men of Mycroft Holmes coming out of the woodwork to get me if I get near him?" Sebastian asked.

"Mycroft only has a minor position in the government," Molly said, her eyebrows knitting together.

Sebastian snorted. "I hate to ruin your illusions, but Mycroft Holmes runs the British Government like Moriarty runs the underworld." He had to laugh at Molly's shocked expression. "Anyway, how do I get in?"

Molly glared at him, and he smiled innocently. She was pissed at him for not giving her enough time to absorb about Mycroft. Too bad. "I'm going to do a check over of the body, just in case. It's not rare, and I think given… I think they'll appreciate it if I do. If you come by about noon you can see him… and then we'll go to lunch."

"How does lunch figure into this?" his stomach was already rolling at the thought. He knew she was weird, but to jump from talking about a dead body to food was insane.

"It's how you're getting in. You're going to tell me that you're my boyfriend and that you're picking me up to try and be nice because… because you know about Sherlock."

"Oh," Sebastian said. His stomach was doing funny little spinny knots at the thought of being domestic enough to be her boyfriend. "Oh," he said again, his tone very different. He looked a bit unsure of how to ask, so Molly sighed.

"I did his autopsy first… they…. Found… him first, after all," she said devastation clear on her face.

"Here," Sebastian said, slipping his arms around her for a moment before guiding her to the kitchen table. "I'll make breakfast. Do you have any fruit?"

"Some apples," Molly said softly, sitting down as directed.

"Good," Sebastian said, grabbing the apples to start cutting them up. "Just rest Molly, it's going to be a long day."


	11. The Differences of Men

Richard got sent home a week and a half after he woke up. He'd been very cooperative through physical therapy, and he seemed to have his motor skills just fine. It was a miracle at all that he wasn't just a brain dead lump. That was why Sebastian had little hope for Jim coming back to them. Richard was just… very different from Jim. To be fair, Richard wasn't so different that he wasn't like Jim. He was very like Jim, he just thought a little different and considered life a little different.

The most obvious difference was that Richard was very affectionate. He hugged and kissed Molly all the time, no matter who was in the room. It had gotten Molly in trouble already, since it was rather frowned upon for doctors to be in love with their patients. Richard had just helpfully pointed out to the staff that Molly was one of the only people who visited him at all, and that she wasn't treating him. She never visited when she was on work hours.

Sebastian had caught Richard talking with one of the nurses later. The sniper had left only for a minute to get coffee and when he came back the nurse was a giggling fluttery mess. Seb could never get out of James what happened with the nurse, but Molly stopped getting harassed by the other staff over Richard's affections.

It wasn't just Molly who Richard was affectionate with. While Richard hadn't kissed him again, the man would often place his hand of Sebastian's knee or shoulder. These touches always made Sebastian uncomfortable. Jim had owned his life, but he'd never been so obvious about his possession. Jim had been the man with all the toys, but Richard was the man with all the toys who showed them off to make others jealous.

Sebastian still came every day, spending all of the visiting hours next to Richard, who would either be completely silent (just like Jim lost in thought) or chatter away endlessly (just like Jim when he was bored). Sebastian would listen as best he could, but often time Richard became far too theoretical for Sebastian to follow. He could follow the math talk to a certain extent, but when Richard started talking about Russian literature in Russian (something Jim would never do) Sebastian could hardly keep up.

Richard seemed to have some odd memories of Jim's. Sebastian had come back from one of his frequent coffee breaks (things he took more and more as Richard got more and more hands on) to find Richard drumming his fingers on the bed railing. "Bistra, bistra," Richard said, mimicking Sebastian's tone and voice fairly perfectly. It made Sebastian blush. Even Richard couldn't help from teasing Seb for his impatience.

Other odd memories surfaced in Richard. After three days before Richard was released from the hospital, Sebastian walked in on Richard with a couple of copies of _The Sun_ in his hands. They were all the issues that detailed the 'crime of the century trial', the 'tell all of Richard Brooke' and 'the fall of the false detective'. Sebastian was considering how to figure out which nurse had brought everything and how to kill her for doing so when Richard pinned him down with a stare. He had the paper from the day after Sherlock Holmes' death in his hands.

"He's still alive you know," Richard said.

"What?" Sebastian asked. He walked in and started to try to clean up the bed.

"Sherlock Holmes, he's still alive," Richard said.

"Can't be," Sebastian said. "I watched him jump myself. He's dead."

"You think he won't be smart enough to know what Jim wanted?" Richard asked with a snort. Sebastian's stomach clenched. He hated it when Richard insulted Jim. "I survived, didn't I?"

"It's only a miracle," Sebastian said.

"You think Jim wouldn't plan for every eventuality?" Richard asked, smirking. Sebastian felt his stomach clench again. The idea that Jim had planned to shoot himself was a very uncomfortable one. It was easier to accept that Jim Moriarty had put a bullet in his brain on a whim… although Sebastian had wondered why Jim had even had one of his guns at all, especially with blanks loaded into it.

"That still doesn't mean that Holmes is alive."

"Of course he is," Richard said. "It's no fun to end the fight before the third seventh inning stretch," Richard pointed out, folding up the news papers and beginning to set them neatly aside. "I like the Richard Brooke persona that the Kitty bitch wrote about. You've been keeping her away, right?"

Sebastian jerked back a bit. It wasn't that he was trying to keep Kitty out because of… well, what Jim did to himself. He was sure that Richard could hold his own very well against her. He kept Kitty away because of Molly. "I don't think it's a good idea to bring her in."

"What do you know?"

"Ms. Hooper always thought that she was just one in a string," Seb said.

"So what? I know that," Richard said with a shrug.

"You… Jim was living with Kitty Riley for a while," Sebastian said, gritting his teeth a bit. It's not that Molly knew, but Sebastian didn't want her to know.

"Oh," Richard said, his eyes getting a bit wide. He went mute for a little while. "Yes, well then, you should set up a meeting between me and Ms. Riley for when I get out of the hospital," he said.

"Are you-"

"Sure? Yes, I told you, no fun if you end the game before the seventh ending stretch," Richard said before lying back against the pillows.

Three days later Richard was released from the hospital. Molly and Sebastian took him back to the flat Sebastian had picked out. It was more unassuming than the huge and obvious place they'd stayed in before the trial. It fit better to Richard Brooke's price range, anyway.

"Welcome home," Molly said, smiling warmly. Richard had held onto her hand since they'd gotten out of the hospital. He was always much nicer in front of Molly than he was with Sebastian. Sebastian was starting to wonder if Molly didn't prefer Richard to Jim. Just the idea pissed him off. If Richard could give Molly everything she wanted, then why would she need Sebastian? Besides that, Jim hadn't even been gone for more than a few weeks. Was she already past him?

"Thank you, my dear," Richard said, tugging Molly close and kissing her cheek. "You'll be staying in my room tonight."

"Are you sure you won't get uncomfortable?" Molly asked. Richard already knew about their sleeping arrangement.

"Can't know till we try, can we?" Richard asked, chuckling when Molly blushed and smiled. "So, you were going to make fish?" He remembered Molly's fish fairly well.

"Oh, yes," Molly said, heading off to the kitchen.

"Have you made the appointment?" Richard asked.

"She'll be here in two days," Sebastian said quietly so Molly wouldn't hear.

"Good, I have a few things I need to take care of."

"I'll make sure Ms. Hooper is away then," Sebastian said. There was no reason for Molly to see what would happen.

"No, make sure that she shows up," Richard said and walked off to claim his room.

Sebastian grit his teeth and seethed for a moment. He felt like Richard led him around on a leash. He could deal with that. He'd sworn to stand by Jim Moriarty no matter what. Richard wasn't so different. Yet he couldn't stand the idea of Richard hurting Molly. He would need to decide if he should listen to Richard, or if he should try and keep Molly away from the flat that day. He was sure he could make an emergency so Molly would have to stay at work late. The question would be if Richard would be able to tell what he'd done.

* * *

**A/N: **

**In case anyone's wondering, the place I was going to for internet just kicked out completely, so now I have no internet at all. You'll probably get like 6 chapters of this all at once as such when I finally can get back to the internet. I'm down to about 1.5k words a day, a far cry from the 5k I was doing. I really need the internet to open more stories. I keep rereading the same fanfiction over and over. I'm getting more than I little sick of it. I've started rereading a rather dull Moriarty/John fic just because I'm really bored in my off time. I'm not bored when I'm running around Russia, but when I get five minutes to myself, I've got nothing to do… like tonight. I'm confined to the flat while the others go out drinking… *sigh*. I'm sick. I slept for most of the day and I'm still exhausted. Homework over, writing time or I'll feel like today's a total waste… five hours of class tomorrow, just shit! **

**Anyway, this story/series is fairly free form, so if you have any suggestions, I might use them if I like them.**


	12. Adorable

Molly met Jim when he walked into the morgue, helping to wheel in a very charred body and looking absolutely green. There had been a fire in a nearby building and too many people had been caught inside. All hands were on deck to deal with the dead and injured, which meant that normal IT workers like Jim ended up rolling dead bodies down to the morgue because no one else could.

"Why don't you sit down," Molly suggested, guiding Jim to her desk. She was shy when off the clock, but when she was working she didn't have time to be shy or embarrassed.

"I'm sorry," Jim gasped.

"It's fine," Molly said, momentarily lapsing from her work mode to think just how adorable the man was. "These are really bad," she soothed. He offered her a very weak smile. In a weird way, he reminded her of her cat, certainly he had Toby's large kitten eyes, eyes that a very adult Toby shouldn't have anymore. Big brown eyes a grown man shouldn't have either.

"You must be very brave," the man said, still abashed at getting so sick from having wheeled in a very charred body.

"Not really. You can get used to anything," Molly said.

The man laughed, it was something like a guffaw. It reminded her of an Irish, adult version of Goofy. She snort-giggled involuntarily. She slapped her hand over her mouth instantly, more embarrassed than she could ever remember. She'd been able to control that stupid laugh of hers since she was a teenager. She didn't even let it out around Sherlock (something she was thankful to whatever god or gods may or may not have existed).

"Nah, don't hide it," the man said, grinning. He seemed to light up when he smiled. "It's adorable."

"No it's not," Molly said.

"Well, it certainly makes my stupid laugh seem less bad," he admitted, chuckling a bit in that same very Goofy-esc tone. He screwed up his face after doing it and Molly snort-giggled again. Once more she slapped her hand over her mouth. She felt a bit of fear pulse through her. She was completely out of work mode now, and she could see just how cute this man was, and she'd gone and done something so stupid sounding.

The man grinned and started to laugh suddenly, his stupid little laugh that was just so funny. Molly couldn't help herself, she started laughing too. To her, her laugh sounded like a braying horse. It must have sounded that way to him too because he just laughed harder, which made her laugh harder. They laughed for a good three minutes before they could settle down to just giggles and try to catch their breaths.

"You know," the man said. His voice was so lovely, deep and sweet with such a sweet accent. There was something so dopey about him, though Molly was sure he was a lot smarter than he seemed. No one who was as dull as this man seemed to be could make it at St. Bart's. "I never thought I'd be laughing around dead bodies."

Molly chuckled. "It's called gallows humor. You get very warped working around the dead so much," she said. "I've got to do a bit of work, you can stay here, make yourself a bit of tea, if you'd like," she said, indicating her electric kettle and supplies.

"Thank you… Dr…?"

"Hooper, Molly Hooper, but just Molly is fine," she said.

"Jim," he said, extending his hand. He just stood there expectantly until Molly clasped his hand back, His hands were so smooth. "Jim Moriarty. Hi!" His voice went up an octave and he waved at her. Molly giggled and he frowned. "What?"

"Come on, no one's this adorable without an act," Molly said, trying to hide her mouth with her hand. She couldn't remember giggling so much in one time frame.

Jim pouted. "Well, maybe I am."

"No way," Molly said, heading back to where the bodies were. Jim followed after her.

"Come on, at least let me prove it to you," he said, hesitating at the door.

"How?" Molly asked, pausing so he wouldn't have to go any further. A part of her brain tugged at her conscious. She felt like someone was whispering instructions in her ears, except it was her voice. He simply didn't want to be around the bodies, and she didn't want to force him to be uncomfortable. It wasn't like he was manipulating her to stay still.

"Dinner," he suggested.

"Really?" Molly asked, turning beet red. She never got asked out, ever.

Jim smiled. It was such a sweet, genuine smile. Molly felt that little tug again, but she ignored it. No one was ever interested in her. "Yeah, really. Is that a problem?"

"No, I mean, it's not… it's just, I don't know you or anything."

"That's the point of dinner," Jim said, grinning a bit. "You know… getting to know each other and all."

"You're a bit of a smartass, aren't you?"

"We aims to please, Madame," Jim said with another disarming smile.

Molly shook her head, letting her lips turn up in some kind of half grin. "What time?"

"How about after work," Jim suggested. "I work in IT… you can come up once your shifts over. I'll be around."

Molly glanced at the clock and then back at Jim. She wondered why she had to come up before dismissing it. It wasn't very manly for him to be squeamish about bodies. He was probably just trying to keep her from seeing him like that again. "Alright," she said. "Why don't you make yourself some tea in the mean time? They should have the bodies cleared out more by then and I can walk you out then, okay?"

Jim beamed. "Thank you Molly," he said. "You're really something else, you know that?"

"I doubt it," she said, waving off his praise. She just didn't know how to take such words, though she craved to hear more. Maybe she was a bit manipulative, down playing it in order to hear more kind words.

"No, I mean, not a lot of people can deal with death like you can. It's quiet amazing."

"Hardly," Molly said. "Anyone can get used to anything under the right conditions. If your choice was surviving or not surviving, you'd figure out how to survive."

There was a sudden keen interest in Jim's eyes, and Molly felt smug for being sure that there was more to him than his sweetness. "This is survival for you?"

"In a way… I'm… well, not very good with people. I think I panic under high stress situations. I'm afraid that I'll kill someone… it's just easier to work on people who are already dead," she explained. "I'm not good with people."

"You did okay with me," Jim said.

"Only because you're acting so adorable I can't even be scared," she said.

Jim frowned. "It's not an act," he said, a bit more edge in his voice.

"Your act is breaking," she said, grinning when he frowned. "Don't worry, I don't care… I kind of like that you're trying. It's like… I know this might sound insane… it's like you could see exactly what I wanted and tried to give it to me…" she trailed off, blushing a bit. "Sorry, I tend to babble a bit."

"No," Jim said, suddenly very thoughtful. It wasn't even normal thoughtful, it was _Sherlock _thoughtful. Molly felt her heart slam into her ribcage. It was fear and want and desperation. How she wanted that… a brilliant man like Sherlock, but one she was safe with too. It wasn't to be though and she felt silly for every thinking it. "Molly?"

"Yes?" she asked, blushing when the word came out sounding too loud.

"You don't sound insane… I'm just surprised you saw through me so fast."

"At all you mean," she said.

"Explain," Jim said, his eyes hard.

Molly frowned, seeing the coldness in the man who'd seemed so warm only moments before. She was even more curious about him now. "A… friend… of mind… Sherlock Holmes, he's like that too."

"Sherlock Holmes," Jim said, his large eyes getting even larger. "You know Sherlock Holmes?"

"Yeah… I mean, he comes in sometimes to use the lab," she said.

"Can… oh Christ, I'm such a big fan. I follow his blog all the time."

"Really?" Molly asked, shocked. She often felt like the only one.

"Yeah, really. I can't believe you know him. Are you really his friend?"

Molly suddenly felt really taken aback. "Well, as close as anyone gets to friends with Sherlock, I suppose."

"Wow!" Jim gasped. "Wow, I'm sorry, that's just so cool!" he said, looking like a kid at Christmas. Molly smiled a bit. He really was adorable.

"I've really got to get back to work," Molly said.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry," Jim said, taking a step back. He'd stepped out of her office when he got excited, but seemed very uncomfortable when he realized what he'd done. "So… dinner in a few hours, right?"

Molly smiled, just a bit. "Yes… I think I might like that."


	13. Blissful Ignorance

Molly felt bad for not telling Sebastian that she loved him. It just felt wrong. She hadn't even told Jim that she loved him, though he'd known. Sebastian wasn't going to crawl in bed with her, even though Jim had set them to share a bed for months. They grieved in their own way. Molly had snuck Moriarty's phone away, letting Sherlock have a hand at it first, though he promised to give her the information on it once he was done. She still had to work on Sherlock a bit more. He couldn't have Sebastian. She'd tell Sebastian Sherlock was alive if he tried to take Sebastian from her as well… John would just have to be an acceptable sacrifice.

She felt her guts twist at that thought. She'd do it though, she knew she would. She'd never been selfish in her whole life, not in a big way. She'd been selfish in letting Sherlock into the lab because she had a crush on him, but it only ever hurt her. She'd been selfish to ask Sebastian to teach her to cook to please Jim, though it make Jim and Sebastian both very happy. She had a life time of little selfishness, but telling on Sherlock was the big one. She imagined that all goodness she'd built up in her life until them would be swept off her record in a second.

She didn't care. She'd just lost the person she'd loved most in the world, for a man who'd never cared about her for more than what he could take from her. She helped that man, she helped Sherlock because she knew there was no other way. She believed in good and evil, and she knew that Jim was evil. It wasn't a question. If he could just be Jim who invited her back to his flat, then maybe she could have made it work. She would have needed to tell on him at some point.

Sebastian wasn't evil, though. He was chaotic neutral. She knew that while he liked violence, he could mold himself into whatever the situation needed. He was bad, wrong, twisted, but he wasn't evil. And he did love her. She was okay with being selfish.

"Molly," Sherlock said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"You're supposed to be dead," Molly said, but offered him the sack lunch she'd brought with her. "Are you done with the phone yet?"

"Yes," Sherlock said, rolling his eyes. He plucked the apple from the bag, starting eat out of sheer necessity. She imagined that he did it as a kindness to John as well. At least Sherlock wouldn't starve himself while away from John, at least Sherlock could do that for his friend. She wasn't even sure that Sherlock knew that he was doing it.

"Can I have it?" she asked, holding out her hand.

"Not anything you can do with it," Sherlock said.

Molly grimaced a bit, accepting the plain black phone Jim never allowed anyone else to touch. "I just need to know who it was that I was dating," she said.

Sherlock made a noncommittal shrug. "This isn't even a hundredth of his information."

"Well, it'll give your brother something to work on," she said. "He really runs the government?"

Sherlock stiffened for a second before raking his eyes over her. "How do you know?"

"I heard John shouting at him about it," Molly lied smoothly. Sherlock accepted it. Jim had rubbed off on her, apparently. Or maybe she was just a good liar. Sherlock had never suspected.

"He's dead," Sherlock said, walking over to the freezer that Jim's body was being kept in.

"There's a hole in his head," Molly said. "Even if they'd caught him sooner he would be a vegetable." She saw Sherlock wince. She felt the same as he did. It would have been hellish, seeing such a brilliant mind reduced to a useless pile of flesh. It was better this way.

"Let me see him," Sherlock demanded.

"Don't be so bossy," Molly said, pulling out the tray. Jim's feet came out first, and then his sheet covered legs, torso, and finally head. "Help me move him to the table," she said.

She grabbed Jim's head, being careful with what was left. Sherlock got the feet. The two of them hauled the body onto the metal cart. "You already did the autopsy."

"I'm doing another once over. It's better to do it again, just in case, for when things get ugly."

"You doing mine twice?" Sherlock asked, cocking and eyebrow.

"I pretended that I did," Molly said. She reached out, pulling the sheet down to show Jim's face. He'd been smiling when they found him, eyes wide open. Molly saw him like that. She wanted to think that maybe he was finally really happy, if only for a moment. Now his eyes were shut, his face the plain neutrality of death.

"It's him," Sherlock said, but he still pulled on gloves and carefully checked the wound in the back of Moriarty's head to be sure.

"I know," Molly said. She tightly gripped the rail on the cart to keep from stroking Jim's hair.

"He can't hurt you when he's dead," Sherlock said, getting the wrong idea from her white knuckles. Molly smiled sadly. Sherlock really didn't understand sentiments. He wouldn't get how much Jim did hurt her by being dead.

"Sometimes," she said, pausing for affect. "I wonder if maybe if I'd been more interesting he wouldn't have blown those people up."

"Doubtful," Sherlock said instantly with a snort. "I assure you, Molly, you were simply not his type."

"You're probably right," she said. She'd grimaced again. He really didn't understand it. She did ask herself that question a lot. She felt guilty for those deaths when Sherlock didn't. She hadn't even known Jim for what he really was then. She'd just been a way to get to Sherlock. If she'd been more interesting, could she have held him off of Sherlock for longer, could she have stopped those explosions? Probably not, but she was easily given to guilt.

"Of course I am," Sherlock said. He probably wouldn't get past his image of Jim as gay. Even Sherlock Holmes was subject to first impression bias. That tripped him up on cases more than he seemed to want to admit. Jim had noted it, so had John, and Molly knew it too. She knew now anyway. It just clicked in her head. Maybe she wasn't a good liar, maybe Sherlock was just willfully ignorant, happy to believe that Jim was gay and couldn't be interested in her. It would be painful to Sherlock, that level of betrayal.

She'd have to tell him at some point, Sebastian's name would come up eventually. She had protected Sherlock and not Jim. It didn't matter that Jim wouldn't have taken her help, that Jim didn't really want to be alive. That was what it really boiled down to: a will to live. Yet she'd make it seem like she picked Sherlock, like he owed her a huge favor (which he did), and she'd try to work Sebastian around… how she wasn't sure yet. It could all fall apart so easily.

Was that how Jim felt? Playing hundreds of thousands of people to get what he wanted? It was exhilarating. Molly didn't even feel guilty about liking that feeling. It reminded her of Jim. Jim was why she wanted to be selfish. She didn't think she could lose any more. Maybe she was just pathetic, but he'd never gotten bored of her. That had to mean something, right?

Molly blinked, realizing that Sherlock had run off with half her lunch. That was fine. Jim's phone was unlocked. She had time to browse through it before giving it to Sebastian. The phone would be one one-hundreth of Jim's work, and way more than Sebastian already knew. If he really planned to try and keep Jim's business going for a while, the information could help. She sighed heavily, setting the phone aside… later.

Molly found her hand treading through Jim's hair. It was such a familiar feeling. She'd done it so many times before. It was familiar in a different way too. It was Jim's hair, but the cold clammy feeling of a death body, another feeling that was even more familiar. She had become very well acquainted with Jim's body as his lover, but she knew even more now as his mortician.

She missed the feeling of his furnace-like warmth. She missed his voice… badly she missed his voice. She already forgot exactly what he sounded like. "I hate you so much right now," she whispered, looking down at Jim's dead body. "I hate you so much I can't even stand it. You hurt me more now than you ever did when you were breathing. You made Sebastian cry. I can't forgive you for that, you complete bastard."

She leaned down, pressing her lips to his cold forehead. "I love you, Jim Moriarty. I really love you. I'm sorry I was too much a coward to tell you when you were alive," she whispered. It hurt. It hurt so much she just wanted to rip her own heart out and stop breathing. Just existing hurt. Inhaling, taking in life was hard. She wanted to end it all, like Jim.

Molly pushed those thoughts aside. She would never be that brave or that cowardly. She wiped whatever moisture had gathered in her eyes and pushed the metal cart with Jim's body into the autopsy room. She needed to finish before Sebastian arrived. He didn't need to Jim at all opened up.


	14. Caged Tigers

Sebastian heard Richard leaving his room at about two in the morning. Sebastian was on one of his normal insomnia spells. Insomnia was the only reason he even watched TV. "Didn't go well?" Sebastian asked.

"It's shit," Richard muttered, throwing himself down on the sofa, placing his head very firmly in Sebastian's lap before Sebastian could get a chance to wriggle away. "How could he stand to have his body control him like this?"

"I don't think he liked people very much," Sebastian admitted. As far as he knew, short of complaining about needing to sleep, Jim didn't seem to see his body as too much of a limitation. He worked within the confines of his body instead of ignoring it like Sherlock Holmes did.

"It's so hot," Richard whimpered, turning to face Sebastian's stomach. Sebastian's body stiffened. He'd be fine with Molly lying like that, but Jim never wanted to be so physical. If Sebastian was honest with himself, he didn't like Richard. He didn't want Richard that close.

"Turn up the A/C," Sebastian suggested. "Pull the covers up."

"Can't sleep if it's cold, and she just crawls closer when it gets like that," Richard grumbled. He turned his head up to Sebastian and winked. "Looks like you get to keep your job as the bed warmer." Richard laughed. Apparently Sebastian had bared his teeth, because Richard had started to make purring noises. "Tyger, Tyger, burning bright," Richard cooed.

"Piss off," Sebastian grumbled.

"Someone's cranky when he can't sleep," Richard said.

"I wonder why."

"Now, now kitten, don't be like that, or daddy won't get you a present," Richard purred.

Sebastian knew it was coming this time, which is why he jerked his head back. Sebastian wasn't sure if Richard planned for him to pull away, or if he just changed course because he found a better target. Richard's lips locked on Sebastian's neck. Richard's hands gripped the back of Sebastian's neck and shoulder.

"Move and I'll skin you," Richard hissed. Sebastian had been wriggling, but he stopped abruptly. He knew better than to argue with that tone. Richard's violent sucking turned to gentler kisses and nips. Sebastian shivered and shut his eyes, trying to imagine that it was Molly, though Richard's slight stubble made that impossible.

"You thinking about her?" Richard asked as her very slowly moved up to Sebastian's ear.

"Yes," Sebastian said, gritting his teeth. He balled his hands into his fists, his finger nails digging into his skin.

"Do I feel like her?"

"No."

"But I kiss like her," Richard said, nipping Sebastian's earlobe in a way that always made Sebastian groan.

"Yes!" Sebastian gasped.

"Good, I've been practicing from her. It turns out that I'm a very quick study," Richard said, shifting to straddle Sebastian's hips.

"S-stop," Sebastian stuttered. He hated himself for revealing any weakness, but he knew that he couldn't push Richard away. He was tied down by ownership. That ownership didn't bother Sebastian when it was Jim. Jim was his boss, his little brother, his… whatever. He didn't know how to describe it. Richard felt wrong, though. Sebastian felt like a caged tiger under Richard's leering eyes.

"But you're enjoying this," Richard laughed, grinding against Sebastian who whimpered a bit, crossing his arms over his chest to try and put some kind of block between their bodies. It was all just basic science. His body was reacting to stimuli, which Richard knew. That Sebastian was already half hard didn't mean a damn thing about what he did or did not want from Richard.

"Get. Off." Sebastian was snarling now. He never used this tone with Jim, the tone he used with men he was about to enjoy torturing. Richard was smaller than him, and consequences be damned if Richard didn't get off his lap that instant.

"Picky, picky," Richard pouted, getting up. He walked around the sofa, running his fingers over the very large and visible hickey that he'd left on Sebastian's neck. "I think Molly brought some concealer with her, you might want to try using it before she wakes up," Richard said. "This is for trying to go against me," he hissed.

Richard's fingers suddenly fisted in Sebastian's hair, pulling his head back painfully. "You've arranged some unapproved activities for tomorrow to keep Molly busy. You think I wouldn't know? I may not be back in complete control yet, but don't you dare contradict my orders for any reason. I'm still Moriarty," he hissed. His mouth came down on Sebastian's again. Sebastian didn't push him away, he just laid still.

Richard's hands came off his hair when Richard stopped kissing him. Sebastian straightened his head out, rubbing his now sore neck. "Richard Moriarty?" Sebastian asked.

"Jim's such a boooooring name," Richard crooned. "Tomorrow you will have Molly here when Kitty Riley arrives, and I'll think about forgiving you," he said before walking back to bed.

Sebastian waited a good fifteen minutes before going to his room and changing into his running clothes. He'd hit his particular rut. Sex or violence. Since he couldn't snap Richard's neck and he couldn't sleep next to Molly, his best option would be to get out of the flat.

The outside air was cold on Sebastian's skin, he didn't care. He was running at a time of morning when most people were either asleep or planning illegal activities. He didn't care. In the morning, Richard was going to hurt Molly… that Sebastian cared about very much. If Sebastian so much as breathed the wrong way between now and when Riley showed up, Sebastian would be begging for death long before it came.

He had a choice then. He could keep Molly away anyway, but she'd probably find out on her own, and Sebastian wouldn't be there to protect her. He could try and break it to Molly easy, and risk that Richard would still kill him. He could just do what he was told and allow Molly to be hurt. None of his choices were very good.

He'd never cared about Jim's ownership because Jim never flaunted his freedom in Sebastian's face. Jim didn't give a shit. Richard was a sadist in the worst kind of way. He was just as possessive as Jim, but proved it by hurting his pets and making them return to him. If Sebastian tried to leave, he would be killed. Even if Sebastian did escape, Molly would still be with Richard. It was suffocating. What was he going to do when the sun came up?


	15. Letting Go of the Lie

She could tell Jim was pleased about something. She wasn't sure what yet, but that pleasure at the situation is why she had to end it. She really did like Jim. He would wrap his arms around her and she could just feel that absolutely nothing in the world could touch her, or harm her. He made her laugh, he told her jokes, he spoke to her like a human being instead of a piece of lab equipment. But it always seemed like a lie. She finally was willing to let the lie go.

"You gave him your phone number," she said. He was still smiling. She wondered if she sounded how she felt: resigned.

"Oh come on," Jim said, tweaking her nose. "It's just for fun. I wanted to see what he'd notice," he said.

"He noticed," Molly said. "He thinks you're gay."

"Yeah, that was the point. Doesn't he just observe beautifully," Jim said.

"Jim, I don't think this is going to work," she said.

"What isn't?" Jim asked. "He obviously bought it."

"Not that," Molly said. "Jim, I'm breaking up with you."

"Excuse me?" he asked, the dark voice he tried so hard not to use around coming out. That dark voice always intrigued her though. It was part of the reason why she knew the lie couldn't go on any longer.

"I'm breaking up with you," she said.

"Is this where you give me the 'it's not you, it's me speech'?" He joked. He clearly didn't realize how serious she was.

"No, it is you," Molly said. That seemed to stump him. She didn't smirk, but she wanted to. She could never stump him, ever. He was so clever. "Jim… you're wonderful, exactly what I would like in a boyfriend… but it feels like you're just playing up to what I want. I knew you weren't who you pretended to be from the first time I met you… but I didn't realize just how much of a lie it was until now… I liked the lie," she admitted.

"You're breaking up with me because I'm giving you exactly what you want?" He asked, his voice very blank. That voice made her shiver. It terrified her, but how she wanted to hear more of it.

"Basically, yes," she said, forcing herself to remain strong.

"You're insane, Hooper," he said. His voice sounded like what she imagined a dead man would sound like. She visibly shivered at the sound.

"I don't want to date an act. I want to date you, Jim," she said.

"No you don't," Jim said, again in the dead man voice.

"No, I do," she said, letting her voice dip into sympathy. She instantly regretted it.

"Don't talk down to me Hooper. I appreciate it even less than you do. The difference is that I don't tend to hide my displeasure," he purred. She shivered again, but this time it wasn't fear. In his voice and his eyes was that power she felt when she was in his arms. When she let her mind wander, she thought that the feeling was like he was the only safe place in the world. Nothing could get to her in his arms… but only because he was more dangerous than any man she would ever meet again in her life.

She reached up, no longer thinking. Her hands rested on Jim's shoulders and she bent down just a bit (she was taller than him in her heels) and kissed him. They didn't kiss often. They hadn't slept together at all. It was a slow, easy relationship. Their kisses were sweet and gentle, the kisses Jim from IT would give her. The kiss she stole from him was nothing like that. It was hungry and longing and much more powerful than Jim from IT could take.

But Jim Moriarty wasn't Jim from IT. She was never more sure of that then when she felt him take control of the kiss instantly. His hands played down her spine and sides. Any little touch and she'd move or moan exactly as he wanted. It was like he'd already had her body a hundred times over. His hands instantly seeked her most sensitive spots, some spots she didn't even know she had. He controlled her completely, and she surrendered instantly.

They broke apart after a moment, both breathing a bit harder than before, though neither were inexperienced school children who couldn't figure out how to breathe through their nose. "Is that what you want from me?" Jim asked, a sneer on his lips.

"More," Molly said. "More, everything."

"You're very selfish today, aren't you?" He asked, smirking. He'd changed her, he was gloating about that. She could see it. Jim from IT always told her to be more selfish, to ask for what she wanted. Jim Moriarty forced her to try and take what she wanted. She didn't mind. She liked the her that could yell at Sherlock Holmes.

"I learned from the best," she said softly. She took a step back.

"Where are you going?" Jim asked.

"I told you… I'm breaking up with you," she said.

"And you kissed me because you don't want me anymore." Jim's tone just exuded sarcasm.

"It's a goodbye kiss… because if our first kiss or any other one before hat had been even a little bit like that, then it wouldn't have been a goodbye kiss," Molly said. This strength in her body, this was what he'd pushed into her. He couldn't stand that she was weak, that she wasn't good enough yet when he found her. "I'm not going to date a man who lies about who he is. I'd rather have Sherlock look down on me forever than live with someone who didn't think he could be himself with me. At least Sherlock is honest about what he wants."

"You're picking Sherlock Holmes?" Jim asked. There was that dead man tone again.

"I'm picking myself," Molly said. She smiled at him sadly, cocking her head to one side. "I'm sorry."

"You are going to be," he said. It sounded like a promise, like a piece of prophesying. "No one walks away from me, not like this."

"First time for everything," she said. "This is my first time breaking up with someone. It'll be a learning experience for us both."

"I'm being serious."

"So am I," Molly said. She leaned in, going on her toes to kiss Jim's forehead. "I liked it best when you held me," she said softly. She backed away from him before turning and walking out. She didn't say goodbye. She walked back to the autopsy room. She was proud of herself.

She slipped into work mode, noting to mourn once she got home. She would cry. She'd cry and wail and sob and hug onto her cat until she felt better. Jim actually looked at her, something she got so rarely. She just… she had more self respect than to live with such a liar.


	16. Disposal

Sebastian as a general rule did not enjoy dealing with dead bodies. It was someone else's job to clean up the messes he made. This wasn't to say that was wasn't brilliant at disposal, because he was. Even Jim had never found anyone quiet as good as Colonel Sebastian Moran when it came to body disposal. Sebastian had a certain flare and talent for it that came far too naturally. Sebastian had a great talent, but it's use came at a great cost to him personally. At some point Jim Moriarty had made the decision that it was more important to have a functioning sniper than a temporary, if very good, man for cleaning up the mess.

Sebastian simply didn't do well with dead bodies. He found a particular pleasure in his work. There was a simple beauty in the complexity of a proper hit. Sometimes he liked making it more complicated than it needed to be just because he wanted to show off. He said that it was so that he couldn't be traced (the further away the hit, the less likely people would be to believe it'd come from its actual home). He said it was to improve Moriarty's name. Really it was just because he took pleasure in a job well done, especially when it was a very hard job.

But pulling a trigger and looking through a lens didn't put him near the actual dead body. Sebastian knew that Molly knew this, which was why she'd never asked him to come to her work before. The only reason he was even coming in was for some incredible and extraordinary circumstances. Nothing less would get him into a morgue.

He flashed the nurse at the front counter a smile and pulled out his idea, his actual idea. "Colonel Sebastian Moran," he introduced. His title with his name came off his lips as easy as 'Doctor' would for the physicians. "I'm here to see Dr. Hooper," he said.

The nurse examined his idea before looking up at him. She smiled flirtatiously. Sebastian smiled back. It was always an ego boost when a woman hit on him. "What is the purpose of your visit, are you not feeling well, _sir_."

Sebastian smiled a bit wider, enjoying the way she said 'sir'. She was using a tone of voice to suggest his authority, his rank, although there was a clear amount of lust in the tone. "I should hope I'm not feeling bad enough to need to see her," Sebastian said, taking back his ID and returning it to his wallet. "I'd rather not be dead," he added. The nurses clearly didn't know who Molly was. That bothered him.

"Dr. Hooper works in the morgue," the nurse said, suddenly understanding. "I'm sorry, have you lost someone?"

The nurse had no way of knowing how that question made his stomach drop out and his eyes sting. He shook his head to give him a moment to control himself, and to show negation. "I'm taking my girlfriend out to lunch."

"Girlfriend?" The nurse asked, clearly stunned.

"Dr. Hooper," Sebastian said. "Can you just direct me?" he asked.

"You have to sign in," the nurse said, clearly sulking as she handed him the sheet. He signed in without complaint, humming cheerfully, though he didn't feel cheerful in the slightest. This woman was starting to get on his nerves.

"Can you just direct me down?" he asked.

"Down the hall, to the left, down the stairwell to the basement level," the nurse said. She smiled flirtatiously again. She'd clearly decided to try for him anyway. Sebastian was momentarily thrown by the heartless planning of it, and in such a short time. He was reminded of Jim, but not in a good way. "Feel free to stop by if you get tired of the dead bodies."

"Oh, I hate dealing with dead things," Sebastian said. "But Molly is the best thing to ever come into my life. A few stiffs aren't going to change that," he said and walked off. He'd let her chew on his fake obliviousness. Molly was, short of Jim, the best thing to ever happen to him.

It actually wasn't easy to find to the morgue and he had to get directors more than once, but he did finally make it down. It took him a moment to actually enter the autopsy room. "Ready for lunch?" Sebastian asked with a fake cheerful smile plastered on his lips.

Molly looked up from where she'd been straightening Jim's hair. Sebastian imagined that she probably had a great respect for the dead, and would tend to the bodies with just as much care as she treated everyone else in her life. How had she possibly been able to cut open Jim's body?

"Oh good," Molly said, sounding tired. "Let me wash up real quick," she said, walking out and leaving him alone with Jim's body. Sebastian knew that she had done it to allow Sebastian a private moment to himself with Jim. He knew she was doing it to be kind, but he frankly didn't appreciate it.

He walked around Jim's body, giving it a wide berth, glad that the storage area was in a different place. He didn't want to have to worry about the dead bodies in the freezers. Sebastian positioned himself at Jim's head, where Molly had been standing. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Sebastian muttered, knowing that Jim would have found his fear hilarious.

"This is all your fault, you know," he addressed the body. "If you hadn't give yourself a fucking skylight, then I wouldn't have to be here."

He looked down at Jim, carefully tilting the head to the side so he could see the hole in the back of Jim's head. It was wide a gaping, the back of his head having shattered from the explosion. There was no way to survive. Sebastian knew guns, and he knew anatomy and he knew when he saw John pull out the gun that there was no way from him to walk away alive.

Sebastian settled the head back down and smoothed down Jim's hair. "You could have complained about me manhandling you if you were still alive," he chastised the dead body. "But you're not, so you get to deal with me touching you anyway, you great doily," he said softly.

He sighed heavily, leaning over Jim's body. He hated the feel of touching the dead. It was even more disturbing because Jim looked just as peaceful as he had that last time in Israel when Jim had slept pressed against his side. Jim looked like he was asleep and would sit up any minute and be scary pissed for being woken up too early, yet the clammy feel of him and the gaping and no longer bleeding would told otherwise.

"Ready to go?" Molly asked. Sebastian jumped. "I'm sorry, did I startle you?"

"You're not supposed to be able to creep up on me, kitten," Sebastian said. He turned and nearly laughed when he saw what she was wearing: one of her horrid mothball jumpers. He'd seen her go that morning, but he clearly hadn't been looking.

"What?" Molly asked, disconcerted by his staring.

"Nothing, just thinking how cute you are," Sebastian said, chuckling again when he got her to pout. "Let's get out of here. These stiffs give me the creeps," he said, offering her his hand to lead her out.


	17. The Second Proposal

Sebastian still hadn't made his mind up when he went to get Molly in the afternoon. He didn't even tell her that he was coming, her just showed up. He winced a bit when he saw her jump. "Sorry," he murmered.

"It's fine, is everything okay?" she asked, deep worry in her eyes. He knew what she wanted to know. Was Jim coming back? Was Richard getting worse? Did something happen to Richard? Sebastian shook his head.

"Nothing to worry about," he said. Her visible relief felt like a stab in his heart. She cared about the man who was Moriarty so much. Today she was going to get hurt because Richard was somehow even more sadistic when it came to his toys than Jim was. "Richard is having a guest over and he wanted us both to be there."

"A guest?" She asked, the unsaid _really? _was in her eyes.

"Yes," Sebastian said. "I'll explain more in the car," he said, edging nervously toward the door. She knew about his dislike of dead bodies. She'd found it endearing and adorable. That was probably why she'd been so afraid when he first showed up: she knew he wouldn't come down to get her if it weren't for an extraordinary reason.

Molly was nervous as he walked her out to the plain black car he drove. It wasn't even very fancy, it just ran and that was all he needed for the most part. Sometimes it was just better to be inconspicuous. Even after they were settled in, Sebastian remained silent as they pulled out of the parking lot of the hospital.

"Will you just tell me?" Molly asked.

Sebastian sighed heavily. "I'm considering not… I'm really not supposed to."

"Then don't," Molly said.

"Dr. Hooper."

"Colonel, don't tell me if you're going to get into trouble for it," Molly said stubbornly.

"I don't want you to go into an unknown situation with no information," Sebastian said stubbornly.

Molly sighed heavily. "Is it really bad?"

"I'm not sure," Sebastian admitted. "I'm just afraid it will be."

"You don't like Richard," Molly said.

Sebastian stiffened for a moment. He thought he was better at hiding things than that. "What makes you say that?"

"You're not… much like you are with Jim. You seem really uneasy around Richard. He's… well, he is Jim, but he's not and I know it's unsettling… but he's different when I'm not around, isn't he?"

"Drastically," Sebastian admitted.

"I thought so… he reminds me a bit of Jim when he was pretending to work in IT," Molly admitted. She sighed heavily. "Jim knew better than to lie to me… I miss him sometimes, I really do… when Jim would touch me, it would be very special. I felt like I earned it, like I really knew that Jim wanted me around and was pleased with me… I don't know at all what Richard wants for me or sees in me. It's like he's only kind to me because he was told to… honestly I'm not even sure if he likes me."

"You don't seem to show any of this," Sebastian said.

"I'm a better liar than you." Sebastian snorted and Molly smiled sadly. "I think Richard knows… but then I don't know. I don't him well enough."

They lapsed into silence for a while. Sebastian was processing Molly's admission long enough that when he realized how close they were he knew he needed to tell her now or not at all. "Molly, do you want me to tell you?" he asked.

"Maybe you should," she said softly.

"… You know the Richard Brooke stuff."

"Yeah, I read it," she said.

"Jim was living with the reporter who did the story… as part of his character… I don't really know what he did while with her, but Richard invited her to the flat today. He told me he wanted me to insure that you showed up."

"Oh," Molly said as they pulled up to the flat. "Thanks for telling me."

Sebastian felt his stomach drop out. He didn't want to see that partly dead look in her eyes. He didn't know if he should have told her, but it seemed like a really nasty shock when it came out during the little meeting. Sebastian sighed again and led Molly up to the flat.

When they arrived Richard and Kitty where sitting on the sofa, sipping coffee. Richard beamed. "Oh good, you made it," he said, casting Sebastian a glance. He clearly knew that he'd told. Sebastian forced himself not to react. Apparently Molly wasn't as good of a liar as she thought.

"Richard," Molly said, smiling, though her tone was a bit… off.

"Molly," Richard said, standing up and opening his arms expectantly. Molly walked right into his grip. Sebastian knew how vice like a Moriarty-grip could be, but Molly seemed to relax in Richard's hold. "Kitty, this is Colonel Sebastian Moran, my closest friend," he said, introducing Sebastian first. Kitty Reilly's eyes were clearly fixed on Molly, jealousy in her eyes.

"Really, you didn't seem to have anyone to help you before," she said. Sebastian glared at her. How dare she imply that he were merely a fair weather friend.

"I chose to keep Seb out of it," Richard said, still cuddling Molly in his arms. "Have you heard about Sherlock's brother Mycroft? Nasty piece of work, works with the government. I didn't want to get Seb in trouble, you see," he explained. He grinned abashedly. "He chewed me out bad for it."

"I see," Kitty said. Her eyes flicked between people, trying to get information. Partly she clearly wanted to know who Molly was, and partly she was looking for more information for a new story. The bit about Mycroft Holmes intrigued her. Too bad for her if she went after him it would spell her own doom.

"And this," Richard said, hugging Molly tighter. "Is Dr. Molly Hooper, my fiancée," he said, beaming. Everyone but Richard looked stunned at that announcement. "Oh, right, I suppose I probably should have asked first," he said. He let go of Molly and took her hand. He lowered himself onto one knee while pulling a ring out of the back pocket of his jeans. It was a nice ring. It wasn't expensive like Moriarty could afford, but it would be something very special for Richard to have bought, and it fit Molly very well.

"Rich…" Molly trailed off.

Richard beamed, slipping the ring on her finger. "I can't stand the thought of having another woman in my bed or my life… it's just you," he said, leaning down and kissing the back of her hand.

"Oh," Molly said. The hand Richard wasn't clasping was pressed to her mouth. She was still stunned but she seemed near tears. She closed her eyes and nodded once, the tears slipping down her cheeks. Richard grinned and stood, dragging Molly into a hug.

"My very best girl," Richard said.

"Richard," Kitty said, clearly feeling awkward, wondering why he'd brought her there.

"Oh, yes," Richard said. He had one arm around Molly, and one slipped into his pocket. It was a very Jim pose… except not… a very Richard pose. "We do still have something to address, I'm afraid," he said, his voice dropping into arctic chill. "When I came to you I was desperate, absolutely desperate to escape my situation. I was trapped to very well connected sociopath who had almost got me sent to prison for his own pride. I had become so well known that there was no way for me to get any other job, and no way to escape my role. I needed you, and you took advantage of that."

"Richard!" Kitty gasped, looking horrorstruck at what he was saying.

"Rape is defined as sexual acts between people, one of whom is unwilling or coerced. You had all the power and there was no way for me to escape except to do exactly what you said… you used me. When I nearly died I was almost happy for it because I thought Molly would never find out. I'm more coward than I thought I was and I hate myself for that," he admitted. "Molly?"

Richard had turned back to Molly, his head moving in that oscillating lizard motion that was so common for Jim. "Can you forgive me… for betraying you?"

"Are you…" Molly hesitated, trying to figure out if that was the best way to play along. "Are you asking me to marry you because you want to, or because you're sorry?"

"Christ, it's because I want to!" Richard snapped. For a second Sebastian wondered if Richard was just playing the part of was earnestly thrown by Molly's question. "Do you… not believe me?"

Molly smiled sadly and went up on her toes, placing soft kisses on his eyelids. "I was so worried about you… we'll work on it… but I'm not going to leave you… I agreed to marry you, didn't I?" she asked softly, smiling shyly.

"Yeah," Richard said, smiling (Sebastian was sure) genuinely. His head oscillated back to Kitty Reilly and his mood clearly changed back to frozen tundra. "Kitty… I think it would be best if you left."

"You can't… do you honestly think… I didn't rape you!" she snapped.

"Richard told you to get out," Sebastian said. He merely leaned against the wall, but she was able to see how much bigger he was than her. "Leave," he snarled.

Kitty looked around and then slowly bent down, grabbing her bag and walking out with as much dignity as she could gather.

Richard let out a happy whoop once she was gone, letting go of Molly completely. "God, she was so awful, how your friend ever let her live is beyond me," he said.

"Hmm… yeah," Molly said. Sebastian saw the sad look on her face that Richard was too busy celebrating to see. She slipped the ring off her finger and Sebastian felt his gut clench. Worse… so much worse. "Here," she said, offering Richard the ring.

Richard looked confused. "What, you don't like it?"

"It's a nice ring," Molly said, but kept her hand outstretched. She couldn't keep such a prop. It would hurt too much.

"But you want me to get you a nicer one?" Richard asked. "I mean, I can buy you am uch more expensive one."

"No, I don't need a new ring," she said.

Richard's brow knit a bit and he looked at the ring and then at Molly and then at Sebastian. "Explain," he ordered.

"She doesn't want to keep a prop, Richard," Sebastian said.

"Prop, what the hell are you two on about?" Richard asked.

"It was a good act…. Thank you for that," Molly said, knowing it had been I part for her.

"Act…" Richard said. He suddenly got it. He reached out and flicked the end of Molly's nose. She let out a 'eep', covering her nose. Richard took the ring back, but instantly grabbed her hand and slipped it back on. "Stupid girl… it's not a prop. I played into the character to get rid of her… but this is real."

"Real," Molly said, not getting it.

"Yes, real. I asked you to marry me remember?" He asked, clearly exasperated.

"Real," Molly said, raising her hand to look at the ring. The meaning suddenly dawned on her face and she gasped. "Real! Real?" She asked.

Richard smiled. "Yes, real…. Though I'll get you a new ring if this one isn't good enough."

"No… Richard, it's perfect!" Molly gasped. The two pained tears she'd pulled out before turned into real sobs. She threw her arms around his neck and dragged him into a kiss. They stayed that way for a moment, wrapped up tightly in each other. Sebastian felt very awkward, but didn't dare move. He knew if he did it would break Richard's concentration.

"So, you really mean it this time?" Richard asked when he pulled away.

"Ask me," Molly said. "You didn't ask me."

Richard let out and exasperated gasp. "Do I have to? You already agreed."

"Yes!" Molly snapped.

"Fine!" Richard muttered. "Will you marry me."

Molly smiled sweetly and kissed the tip of Richard's nose, making him actually blush. "Yes… I'm love to," she said. She pulled away, and Richard grabbed her wrist.

"Where are you going."

"Bathroom," Molly said. "I want pictures, and I can't look like this for them!" She said, grabbing her purse and headed for the loo.

Richard grinned, throwing himself down on the couch. "What?" he asked, smirking as he saw Sebastian's face.

"Are you out of your mind?" Sebastian asked.

"See, and this morning you were worried that I'd hurt her and now you're upset because I'm engaged to her."

"You don't even know her," Sebastian snapped.

"Oh, relax," Richard said, rolling his eyes. "Molly is… infinitely precious to me. She was important to Jim… but he was too scared or too stupid to see what he had. I'm not going to make the same mistake."

"Shut up!" Sebastian snapped.

"I know why you're angry," Richard said in Jim's sing song voice. "You think that you'll never get to touch her again if I'm engaged to her… don't worry, this marriage is to prove that I will never touch another woman again… never said anything about a man," he said with a broad grin. Sebastian shivered. "Don't worry baby… I won't leave you out in the cold."


	18. The Best Orange Juice In London

Jim hums happily, content with his new play things. Irene Adler is a most amusing find. He avails himself of her services once out a curiosity. He finds her rather to be like eating lamb. He can tell when he's eating good lamb, but that doesn't mean he enjoys it. She's not his kind, though he likes her style. She'll be useful. She's smart too. He likes smart people. They're still normal and boring but at least they're a little less dull. She's a little beside normal too. That makes her a little bit more interesting. She'll be fun bait for little virgin Sherlock Holmes too.

Jim turns up the music, leaving it on shuffle. "Ah, Andrew, you are a fine man," he murmurs when the player reaches "Heaven on their Minds." He'll listen to anything so long as it's not boring. That means Jim Moriarty has no definitive taste in music. He stretched back, just enjoying the music as his thoughts go in a hundred different directions at once.

When he thinks about it, he doesn't have a definitive taste in anything. Sometimes all he wants his a rare steak, and sometimes all he wants is Lucky Charms, and sometimes he only wants a rare dish he's never even tasted before and has to murder rare animals to try. It's the same with people. Sherlock Homes is definitely a favorite play thing. He's fun and interesting. Sebastian's good too, though Sebastian is nothing like Jim or Sherlock Holmes. Yet Jim has no interest in John Watson.

Irene Adler seemed like she'd be right but Jim's alley. She's brilliant in her own way, smart enough to not be dull, and came up with most of the plan on her own after she was able to avail herself of his recourses. Yet Jim had no interest in her at all. But Molly Hooper… Yes, that was who he should focus on now.

Molly Hooper was a new variable. She was connected to Sherlock Holmes but not completely boring which was why he'd picked her in the first place. The fact that she'd broken up with him intrigued her. Possibly he should want to kill her for it… but no, he wanted to give her exactly what she asked for. She didn't _want _Jim from IT, the persona he'd created just for her. She liked it when he slipped into Jim Moriarty. That was what she thought she wanted. He'd happily oblige.

He tuned back into the world when he realized his toes were tapping "Smiley Faces" his brain supplies as the name of the song. He never could forget the name of any song, ever. He could never forget a movie title, a book titles, the name of a show or its episodes. He could detail for anyone exactly what happened in every episode of _FRIENDS_ and what actors showed up and probably give a fair good one-man performance of each episode as well. But what was the point? There was none, it was just booooring.

He tuned back out again as "Smiley Faces" turned into "Attacked by Snakes", focused back on Molly. He liked her gall. He couldn't help the very tiny flicker of affection he felt for the ridiculous woman who dragged him into a passionate and dominating kiss just to prove a point. It was cute, adorable, just like how she pictured Jim from IT. She was what he'd been making her into when she suddenly turned on him. He hadn't planned for it, but that didn't make him angry. It was interesting. There was a wonderful glory in everything in a plan going perfectly well. Yet, if Jim was being honest, he liked it best when the plan screwed up completely and he had to fix it all on the fly. There was more challenge to that than to a perfect plan.

"Seb!" Moriarty crooned, realizing the Glee cover of "Maybe This time" that Molly had uploaded to his ipod just to bother him had come on.

"Yeah, Boss?" Sebastian asked, walking out with a book of Russian poetry (actually in Russian) in his hand. Sebastian could be so cute sometimes, trying to educate himself, especially when it was such a struggle for him.

"I'm sending you away for a week?"

"What should I pack?" Sebastian asked, dog-earing his page and shutting his book.

"Hmmm… not sure, whatever you need for St. Petersburg this time of year," Moriarty said. He could see Sebastian's eyebrow go up, guessing (correctly) that Jim was just pulling this off the top of his head.

"Fine," Sebastian said. "Something specific I need to do?"

"Just make some trouble," Moriarty said, smirking. "I know you can."

"Fine boss, but you make the reservations, and I'm not going to be jammed into the back again," Sebastian said, walking to his room.

"It's safe in the back!" Jim shouted like he actually cared about Sebastian's safety.

* * *

It took a tiny bit more work than Jim wanted to do to get Sebastian on a plane. Jim had toyed with the idea of putting Sebastian on a super packed plane, but decided against it. Pissing Sebastian off would be more trouble than it was worth (his grumbling was very annoying) and Sebastian would know not to take the first class seat as anything but what it was.

Jim didn't care, Sebastian could be more moral than he pretended her was, and Jim didn't want Sebastian's annoyed looks around at him going and deciding to play with the good Doctor. The only problem with Sebastian being gone was that no one was around to give Jim an opinion on his outfit. It was a fleeting annoyance, but Jim still didn't like it.

He finally decided on the black suit. It never went bad with anything after all. If Molly Hooper wanted to see who she really was, then she would. It was very, very easy to set up this little play date too. He'd simply sent her a few text messages from the cell phone of a man he knew she was attracted to in the upper levels.

He finds a nice restaurant and a booth at a place where the serve exceptional orange juice and he doesn't have to call it "apelcenovae sok" in order to get it. Besides that, a glass of OJ is less expensive in London than in Moscow, and much more likely to not be in pathetically small portions.

"So," Molly says when she sees him. She sits down at the booth, looking uncomfortable. Smart girl.

"Sorry to interrupt your date," Jim says in his dull voice.

"No you're not," she says. She examines him now, the slicked back hair, the suit, the control he has over himself and everyone in the room (whether they know it or not). She's intrigued. Isn't that cute.

"No, I'm not," Jim says. The waiter comes over with the juice. She offers Molly a smile, a real one, but Jim gets a fake smile. She knows he's trouble and he imagines she's the type who offers any girl with a bruise the number of a sex abuse hotline.

"So," Molly says again, looking around for a moment before looking back at him. "I'm curious, I think."

"You think?" He asks, smirking a bit behind his glass.

"Yes, yes, a binary state," she said before he can even make the joke that he had no plan of making. "I'm," she paused and licked her lips. "I'm wondering what you'd do if there was no one here."

"You're hoping for kinky sex?" he asked, laughing when she blushed. She was predictable.

"I was hoping for… I'm not sure really… I'm just curious."

"I can make us be alone," he said.

"No, there's good orange juice here," she said. She smiled when he quirked and eyebrow. "You told me about this place before, before muttering about something in Russian."

"Hm, interesting," Jim says.

"What?" she asks.

"No one ever observes anything."

"I don't observe things," she said with a blush like Sherlock Holmes had complemented her.

"You don't, but you almost do, which I imagine is something of a miracle," he said sipping his juice.

"May I still call you Jim?"

"It is my name," he said, looking back at her. "What, you thinking of coming back so quickly?"

"You haven't given me a reason to yet," she said. She wanted a reason. Jim found himself laughing.

"Hooper, you're twisted in all the wrong ways."

Molly smiled. "Maybe, but it's never bothered me before. Please give me a reason."

"Do you want me to tell you that I will never lie to you, because I'm not going to," he told her.

"That's okay," she said.

"It was the deal breaker before."

"It's who you are, isn't it?" she asked. He didn't answer that.

"So, what does the great Molly Hooper want from little old me?" he asked with a smirk.

"A promise," she said. Her hand flexed, moving toward his before pausing and moving back to her lap.

"A promise?" he asked with a smirk.

"Promise me that you won't… well, try and have me do anything to Sherlock, or give anything up about him."

"Oh please," Jim said, rolling his eyes. "Like I need you to get either of those things."

"Then it'll be an easy promise, won't it?" she asked.

"You don't have any idea what you're getting into Hooper," Jim cooed, reaching out and taking her hand, kissing the back. "But I promise." He liked the way she smiled when he said that.


	19. The Funeral

Jim's body simply disappears one day about two days after Jim died. Molly doesn't go looking for it. Sebastian doesn't go looking for it. If either of them are seen showing too much interest it could be dangerous. Molly does a bit of poking around until she's handed some very official papers that show that some family member had come out of the woodwork to claim Mr. Brooke's body. Molly knows it a lie, but she doesn't question it. She does photocopy the paper she's handed one too many times (which she's done before and normally just shreds the extras) so that she can keep them. It's as close as either her or Sebastian will get to knowing what really will happen to his body.

Molly comes home about a month after Jim died to find Sebastian cleaning his riffle whilst sitting on her sofa. "Colonel," she said, smiling a bit. She hadn't seen him in three weeks. He told her he needed to take care of a few things with Jim's business. It wasn't an unusually long amount of time not to see him, but knowing that Jim was dead just made it all much lonelier.

"Do you think it's not real sometimes?" Sebastian asked, not looking up from his work.

"What's not real?" she asked.

"You know… the life we had?" he asked.

"Yes," she said instantly. "I go to work every day… and it's just… I feel like how I did before I met Jim. I'm overlooked, unvalued, that piece that fits in the cogs so that the work gets done, and no one cares about until it's not around. Yesterday… I wondered if maybe I hadn't dreamed Jim and the whole mess completely."

"I got drunk last night," Sebastian said, starting to pack his riffle up. "The sun rose and they had to throw me out to get me to leave." He turned to look at her and he had dark circles under his eyes. "I haven't been that drunk since Jim hired me… I never, never want to be that drunk ever again."

"Oh, Seb." She stopped, hesitating because she'd slipped and said his name. Sebastian smiled though.

"No… I… I rather like it when you call me by my name, Ms. Hooper," he said.

Molly blushed. The way she could so formally say his name could sound so erotic. She moved to sit down next to him. "Seb… Sebastian?" she asked, blushing more and looking down at her hands.

"Molly," he said and she froze, blushing even more. "Will you… will you look at me?"

She looked up, stunned when she dead. She rarely not to see Sebastian blush, but he was now. He looked every bit as unsure as she felt. She never felt so awkward or unsure with Jim, not to her memory. Jim made her feel empowered, which she liked. But Sebastian made her feel shy, her natural reaction to men she liked… but she could actually talk to him, he actually wanted her to speak to him… and more, she made him shy too.

"There was… something I wanted to do tomorrow… if you don't mind. Will you go with me?" Molly blurted out suddenly.

"Oh, yeah, sure," Sebastian said.

"Will you stay tonight?" She asked, smiling shyly.

"Yeah," he said with a tired and weak twitch of the lips to force a bit of humor on his face. "The couch has been missing me, I suppose."

"Yeah," she said, deflating a bit. She'd hoped that he would want to come to bed with her, just to sleep at least. She sighed and shook that off. He called her by her name. She'd take that. "Um… Sebastian?" she asked, blushing again. She saw him smile, for real even though it was small. That made her feel bold. "How did work go?"

"Awful," Sebastian said. "I missed you so much… I was just so terrible," he said. He reached out, suddenly dragging her into his arms, into his lap.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, wrapping her arms around him. She melted to give him what he needed: affection, safety, care.

"I don't think I can keep this up for very long. I don't think I want to," he said. "I'll just take what I can and bow out. I made enough, I don't have to keep working."

"What will you do?"

"I… don't know really," Sebastian said, sitting back a bit, thinking. "You don't leave Jim's employment; you either die or are executed. Those are the options… I don't know…" he said, trailing off.

"You don't have to decide today," she said, leaning in and kissing his cheek. "But you're not falling off the wagon again. I'll kick your ass if you start screwing up again, I swear to god I will," she said, crawling out of his lap.

Sebastian grinned. "Jim rubbed off on you."

"I like to think of it as I rubbed off on him," she said, shooting him a very Jim-like smirk over her shoulder. He heisted and then burst into laughter. She smiled, a bit of sadness behind her smile. When was the last time Sebastian had actually laughed? "Come on, help me get the sofa made."

* * *

"So, where are we going exactly?" Sebastian asked, shifting a bit uncomfortably as they crossed the grounds of the cemetery. Molly seemed intent on a mission. He figured out what it was when they suddenly stopped in front of the grave of Sherlock Holmes.

"Please," Sebastian said through gritted teeth. "Tell me that you did not drag me out here so I could see this."

"No," Molly said. "But I think Jim would like to be buried near Sherlock, so he could taunt him for all eternity." She'd gone to Sherlock's funeral. She cried, but she cried for Jim, knowing very well that Sherlock was alive and fine and probably experimenting on one of her corpses.

"Buried?" Sebastian asked.

"I don't know if they ever are even going to bury Jim, do you?" she asked, and Sebastian shook his head. She pulled the papers she'd gotten, the very official papers, the actual papers proclaiming that Richard Brooke had been gotten by his family. She pulled those papers out of her purse. "We'll bury him here," she said.

She knelt down the grave of Sherlock Holmes, pulling things out of her bag: a trowel, a plate, a stone, wet wipes. Sebastian knelt down next to her, picking up the stone. Two letters, J and M where carved into the rock. Sebastian too the trowel, starting to dig next to the headstone of Sherlock Holmes. Molly settled the papers on the plate and lit them on fire.

It didn't take them very long. The paper burned very quickly, and Sebastian easy dug down to about his own arm length fairly easily. Molly poured the ashes into the hole. She kissed the stone and offered it to Sebastian, who kissed it as well. She dropped it in and they both poured the dirt back into the hole. Sebastian replaced the top mound of dirt that had the grass still attached. They washed their hands with the wet wipes and headed off.

"I think he would like this," Sebastian said, letting out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding for a month. Not burying Jim, not being able to do anything for Jim had been bothering him. That was why he'd gone out to drink: guilt. Guilt for surviving, guilt for not protecting him, guilt for being unable to do even a last thing for the man who had saved his life. He didn't know if Molly saw this, but he knew on thing for certain. "I love you, Molly Hooper."

"That's nice to hear," Molly said, looking away. Sebastian felt the stab in his heart… oh well. He couldn't go back to bed with her, and she couldn't love him. Maybe it would change… but not yet.

* * *

**A/N: **

**I'm in Moscow now… and I'm exhausted for reason… so many reasons, but I planned out the next few chapters and I need to write some things, though I just want to sleep. Right now our half of the hall has no power, but it's Russia, so the sun stays up for a long, long time. **


	20. Richard Moriarty

Molly lay in Richard's arms, feeling content and happy. They weren't having sex or about to have sex, or in a state of just having had sex. But Richard had undressed them both and dragged them under the blankets. He still couldn't get over how much heat his body put out. He was experimenting with how to be able to sleep next to her.

"You'll move in," Richard said.

"To where?" Molly asked with a laugh.

Richard pouted. "What's so funny?"

"Richard… You don't live here. You don't live in the penthouse flat Jim always took me to. You don't live anywhere," Molly pointed out.

"I could live somewhere," he said.

"It would be too dangerous," Molly pointed out.

"I'm not Jim," Richard said, his eyes getting dark. Molly smiled sadly and kissed her cheek. She shifted her hand to see the engagement ring she still wore.

"I know, I do," she said softly. She snuggled closer to him. "Richard, we need to talk."

"Are you breaking up with me?" he asked in a deadpan voice.

Molly reached up and flicked his nose, smirking a bit at his scowl. Pay back. "Don't be stupid," she said in her best Jim imitation. Richard laughed, and hugged her closer, snuggling her face into her neck. He breathed in, seeming to try to suck up all of her scent that he could. Jim did that too, sometimes, when he didn't think she was paying attention.

"What do we need to talk about?" he asked.

"Sebastian," she said, blushing a bit. "I don't… I mean, I know what an engagement ring means, Richard… but what I had with him…"

"You don't want to stop sleeping with Sebastian Moran," Richard said. Molly shivered a bit at his dead tone, but nodded. "Well, I don't mind," Richard said and Molly gaped at him at the rapid change of tone.

"You're okay with it?"

"I'm fine with it baby," Richard said, kissing her ear. He grinned when she jumped like she always did when he did that. "I'm surprised you haven't jumped him already since I've been out of action."

"We're not animals Richard!" Molly snapped. "Besides… it's not… like that."

"You were sleeping with him before, it's not like you need my permission."

"We needed Jim's."

"Oh," Richard said. His wide eyes got a little wider and then he just chuckled. "Well, you don't need mine baby love."

"I'm engaged to you," Molly said.

"This ring means one thing only," Richard said, grabbing her hand and dragging it so she could see the band. "It means that I'm not taking any women into my bed but you. You're my only woman, and there's never going to be anyone else."

"Richard," Molly said, pursing her lips. "Sebastian's straight."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Richard said dismissively.

"Richard!" Molly snapped. "You can't just treat him like that."

"Of course I can," Richard said, looking shocked that she's say such a thing. "I own him."

"No, Jim owned him," Molly said, sitting up. Richard let out a heavy sig hand just slipped his arm around her waist, dragging her close and kissing her thighs to try and distract her from this conversation. "You're not what's keeping him here."

"Want to bet?" Richard growled.

"It's not you; it's the slim hope that Jim will come back… and well… I think maybe me too," she said. Richard stopped his kissing to look up at her. Normally she would never say something so… well, self centered.

"You?"

"I know what he thought when you told him to bring me to your meeting with the reporter. He did what he could to protect me, which was to tell me and give me warning, but also to bring me anyway. If you killed him then he couldn't be between you and me."

"He doesn't need to be there."

"But he thinks he does," Molly said. "He really hates you."

"Do you prefer to Jim to me?"

"What?"

"Just answer," Richard said.

Molly sighed heavily and leaned back against the headboard. "I miss Jim… I really miss him. Jim lied to me once at the beginning, but never again. He didn't tell me what he did, but he never lied about what he wanted from me. I always knew where I stood with him."

"A lowly spot without much mention," Richard pointed out.

"Let me finish," Molly chastised, making him smile a bit because it meant she still felt safe enough to play with him. "I… with you I get all the affection I've ever craved. But you're still…" She licked her lips. "You're still dangerous and interesting. Before Jim would call me some evenings and sometimes I'd get to be with the Colonel, but it didn't feel like my life. This felt like my life… I can't like Jim better than you Richard. You're both too different. Mostly, I just haven't been able to bury him. I don't want to forget about him, and I still need time to grieve."

Richard nodded and sat up, he tugged Molly into his lap, wrapping the blanket around them both. "You're perfect for me," he said. "Shhh, no don't speak. It's daddy's turn to talk." He bent down and kissed the tip of her nose. "You're my woman and you'll be my wife."

"So what will Sebastian be?" Molly asked.

"I was hoping my second wife, but I think he'll object to that term."

"Richard, Sebastian is very straight."

"I'm sure I can fix that."

"Richard!" Molly said with exasperation. She grabbed Richard's face between her hands.  
"Listen to me, if you want him to simply not hate you, then you need to do a few things. For one, you need to show him that you're not dangerous to me. For second, you need to be sure he knows that it's okay for me to be with him."

"He knows."

"Third," Molly continued. "Is that I need to see what you're like with him."

"Why?" Richard pouted.

"Because if you lie to me then I will leave," Molly said. "I wanted Jim Moriarty, not Jim from IT. If I'm going to be with Richard Moriarty, I don't want Richard Brooke."

"Ohhh," Richard purred, shaking his shoulders a bit as if she'd scratched him in the right spot. "Richard Moriarty, I looooove the sound of that."

"Then keep it," Molly said, kissing Richard's lips, making him smile. "Consider it an engagement gift. Do you want me to get you an engagement ring too?"

Richard's eyes got huge at the suggestion. "Oh, yes please, will you?" He looked so hopeful. Molly smiled warmly and settled her cheek against his shoulder.

"Anything for you," she said. "Besides, how else will people know that I belong to you?" she asked with a wicked smile. A moment later she was rewarded with the warm vibrations of Richard's laugh moving through his chest.

Suddenly Molly found herself pinned to the bed. She tried to shit to make herself for comfortable. Instead Richard pinned her hands above her head in a bruising grip. "Richard, what-" He muffled her words with a bruising kiss.

"You want what I give to him too?" Richard purred. It was such a Richard sound. Jim could purr, but only under very exact conditions. Richard purred like he was a happy criminal mastermind and was going to show off dammit(!). "I was just going to be a bad boy with Sebby. I don't want to break my favorite girl."

"Richard, wha-" a finger was pressed to her lips and she instantly went silent.

"No more words," Richard said. "Don't make a sound." He moved her hands up, placing them on the top of the headboard. Grip hard for me. Don't you dare let go for any reason. I don't care if either of us are bleeding, or your arms hurt. You don't move from this position."

Molly made no sounds, he'd ordered her not to. He started to move down, kissing and biting and bruising her in ways that would make it honestly hard to move in the morning. She bit her lip until she bled to try and keep from making noises when Richard got bellow her belly. He hurt her, but not hurt like she couldn't handle. It wasn't hurt she didn't want shockingly sensual. It wasn't pain that she hadn't secretly wished Jim would have tried with her.

When Richard did finally tell her that she could her arms down she felt very, very happy. Her arms ached badly, but she made to wrap them around Richard's neck anyway. She just wanted to cuddle and sleep now. Richard pulled away though. "No."

"No?" she asked.

"No, I'm getting the Colonel for you," Richard said. He looked a bit sad, though maybe she imagined that. "It's too hot."

"I love you Richard," Molly murmured, settling into the pillows.

"Love you too babes," Richard murmured, slipping out. No more than two minutes later Sebastian entered.

"Hey," Molly said sleepily, forcing herself to stay awake.

"Shh," Sebastian said. He crawled into bed and under the covers. She could feel the tension in his whole body.

"I'm okay, Colonel," Molly said, kissing Sebastian's jaw. "Please, don't leave me all alone with him," she said, but fell asleep before she could add 'I want you too.' Sebastian's arms tightened protectively around her, having been able to see some of her bruises in relief from the light in the hall when he'd come in.


	21. I Fancy You

Sebastian knew from experience that if he didn't tell Molly Hooper how he felt about her within 24 hours that Jim would tell Molly for him. He also knew that Molly would be coming over early to cook dinner for Jim, and so Sebastian would have a few hours with her. He'd make the soup, she's toss the salad. He'd make the dessert, she'd make the main course and it was some good 'alone time'. He just hoped his own tongue didn't betray him.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so nervous. He hadn't had a girlfriend since it became very clearly that he couldn't hold onto a relationship and stay employed (and therefore alive). He'd always picked Jim over any woman… but Molly would also pick Jim over any man, and as such it couldn't be more perfect. Each would understand having to leave the other for Jim, because Jim was the center of their universes.

But it was still so odd, telling a woman that he liked her (he'd be avoiding the big 'L' word for all time if he could help it) and that he wanted to have a relationship with her while she was in a relationship with his boss, and that his boss was okay with it… it just wasn't done. Yet Jim did a lot of things that just weren't done, and Sebastian just had to pray that Molly Hooper would be open to dealing with one more thing. Either that or Sebastian would lose her completely. Well, he'd just have to see.

Sebastian imagined that he'd have broken his hands from how hard he'd wrung them… if he indulged in such things. Instead he worked on making a rather complex stew because it could keep his hands busy while he waited.

"Oh, sorry, I'm late!" Molly gasped when she swung into the kitchen. She had already left her coat and shoes in the hall where they belongs and was rolling up her sleeves. "You started already," she said with a smile, getting the things out of the refrigerator that she had bought the day before to make dinner for Jim.

"It's fine, the chances of him being on time are pretty slim," Sebastian pointed out.

"Yeah, but I like being on time," Molly said.

"Anything interesting at work today?" Sebastian asked.

Molly sighed heavily. "I got invited to a Christmas party at Sherlock's flat," she said hesitantly. Sebastian's heart stopped for a moment. Sherlock Holmes was a taboo subject with Molly. Neither Jim nor Sebastian believed for a second that she still wasn't in love with Sherlock Holmes.

"I see," Sebastian said simply. He didn't want to talk about it, but clearly neither did she. They didn't speak of it again as they worked.

"You already have the cake in the oven," Molly said as Sebastian was taking it out. The soup was done at that point, the salad was made, and Molly was working on finishing the fish.

"Everything's ready then," Sebastian said. His stomach was tied in knots. He didn't feel hungry at all.

"Colonel, are you okay?" Molly asked. His stomach clenched.

"Just wait till you're done. I don't want you to burn yourself," Sebastian said.

"I have more control than that," Molly said, sounding miffed.

"Just… trust me," Sebastian said.

"Okay, but you can't make me wait all night, I'll get nervous," she said.

"Okay, I swear," Sebastian said. He helped her get the table made as she finished with the fish. Jim flounced in right when Molly finished and Sebastian didn't have even a second to talk to her. Jim clearly noticed that Molly didn't know yet and seemed hum happy the whole evening, though neither Sebastian nor Molly ate much (nerves did that to a person).

"You two love birds clean up the nest while daddy goes to make a phone call," Jim called as he flounced out. Sebastian understood: this was his last chance or Jim was going to tell Molly himself.

"Well?" Molly asked, seeming to understand the underlying message of Jim's words as well.

Sebastian sighed and turned the water on in the sink as Molly started to put the leftovers away. "Well," Sebastian said, not wanting to say it. "I think…. I rather fancy you." The second the words were out of his mouth he stared it horror. What had he just said? I fancy you? What the hell? Had he just dropped out of a Victorian romance novel?

"Excuse me?" Molly asked with a snort, clearly either too amused to notice what his words meant, or simply not believing it because it sounded so stupid. "You what?"

"I uh… fancy you," Sebastian said, wincing. "I like you, I find you very attractive Doctor Hooper. I can't stop thinking about you. I can't even sleep anymore when I'm lying next to you because I can't stand that you don't think of me like that at all." Sebastian's teeth clicked together with the force he used to shut his mouth. He couldn't keep babbling like that.

Molly was staring at him, seeming horrified as well. Her eyes flicked out to the living room where the ebony wood door of Jim's study stood. "Are you mad?" she hissed. "Why would you tell me that? Are you out of your mind?"

"He… um, he already knows," Sebastian said.

"How are you still alive?" Molly hissed, not believing him. She was angry at him… well, he hadn't expected that. She was angry because yes, it was terribly stupid for him to tell her, especially since she was Jim Moriarty's woman.

"He um… told me to tell you."

"Why, to test me?" Molly snapped, fire growing in her eyes. "Jim, I know you're not on a phone call!" She shouted. To Sebastian's surprise Jim ripped the door open, grinning like the snake he was. Of course he'd be listening. Hell, he'd probably taped it!

"Really Seb? 'I Fancy you?'" Jim asked, snickering as he strolled into the kitchen. Sebastian felt his ears getting red.

"It's not funny Jim," Molly said, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's not funny to test me like this."

"It's cute how you think I spend my time thinking up ways to bother you, but Sebby here is being genuine," Jim said, rolling his eyes.

"He… you… I mean… what?" Molly asked, looking between them. The color in her cheeks (which had become rapidly red with anger) was now rapidly draining down to white. Shit, this was the last thing Sebastian wanted. He couldn't stand it if she became afraid of him. Would she think he was an animal who couldn't control himself? He'd heard that enough in his life. She'd never say it out loud, but he didn't want to read it in her eyes.

"Colonel Sebastian Moran has an adult man crush on you," Jim said, locking his fingers behind his back and beginning to rock back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"You meant it?" Molly asked, her eyes turning to Sebastian, who couldn't meet her gaze.

"Yes," Sebastian said, looking past her. Why did Jim was to witness this?

"Am I supposed to pick between you? Jim, this is heinous!" Molly snapped, but her voice still sounded weak. Sebastian was surprised she could get any force behind her words at all. Heinous? What did she think he couldn't stand the rejection.

"No, Molly Dear," Jim purred, reaching out and patting Molly on the top of the head in the most patronizing way possible. "You, my dear, have just won the lottery. You get to fuck both the world's only consulting criminal, and the world's best sniper," he said with a cruel smile. Molly turned bright red. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

"Sir," Sebastian said. "Can you please go back to your pretend phone call?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Temper, temper," Jim said, but obliged. He probably hoped to be able to record another great line like 'I fancy you'.

Sebastian let out a breath, but still didn't look at Molly. "I like you very much, Miss Hooper, but I won't act on it at all if it bothers you."

"And if it doesn't bother me?" Molly asked. She wasn't admitting anything, just asking for options. Still, her words jolted painful hope through his body.

"Then," Sebastian said, licking his lips. His whole mouth felt dry. "I hope that you would do me the honor of having coffee with me later this week."

"Coffee?" Molly asked, looking down at her feet. Sebastian could see it, but he could hear the smile on her voice. "That's it."

"For now," Sebastian said.

"Then… may I request that I be given time to think about it… until coffee… Wednesday," she added.

"Coffee on Wednesday sounds fine… just coffee and maybe a sandwich for lunch?" Sebastian suggested.

"Yes, there's a nice café near the hospital," Molly said. "Um… so, until then, I suppose," she said and walked to Jim's study. She knocked on the door as she passed and then went to his room. Jim came out a moment later and went to his room as well, not so much as casting a glance at Sebastian. Sebastian went back to cleaning up the kitchen.


	22. Make Your Bed and Lie in it

"I think I should tell my boyfriend that I love him," Molly said.

"I don't see what I have to hear this," Sherlock said, slouching back in his seat.

"Because you want me to not let anyone know you're alive," Molly said, resisting the urge to reach out and ruffle Sherlock's orange dyed hair. He couldn't exactly hide who he was if John saw him, but Sherlock was brilliant at disappearing in plain sight. The only physical changes to Sherlock were a change of clothes (closer to something John would wear) the hair dye and the brown contacts Sherlock wore, yet Sherlock seemed like a completely different man. He walked different, spoke different, acted different. None of it felt wrong, though. When she tried to down what felt off about Sherlock's new persona she never could, even when he wasn't acting anymore. If anyone saw him being himself, and he then slipped into his act, no one would question him as acting and no one would think he was Sherlock Holmes.

"Don't you have a girl you can talk to?" Sherlock asked.

"You already know the answer," Molly said. She didn't have anyone she'd been close to, not really. She had people she talked to at work, and she'd had her crush on Sherlock and she'd had a cat. Now she just happened to have an ex-military sniper.

"He's told you that he loves you already," Sherlock said, deducing too keep in practice. "You haven't said it back and he's said it enough that it's becoming uncomfortable, but that's not the only reason you feel like you need to say it now when you didn't before" Sherlock said.

"No, it's not," Molly said. It'd been four months since Jim died, and Sebastian had basically been living in her flat since Jim's funeral. He still slept on her couch, though. She missed Jim badly, but while the pain of losing him didn't lessen in anyway, there was something very final about it all. He wasn't coming back, he wasn't Sherlock Holmes; he didn't have that will to live. He wasn't coming back. Molly didn't have to hope for him to show up one day. She did his autopsy. She knew better than anyone else that he was dead.

"Maybe he's gay," Sherlock suggested.

"What?" Molly asked, startled by Sherlock's words breaking into her thoughts.

"He's not sleeping with you right now, and you're hoping to get him in bed if you tell him you love him too," Sherlock pointed out.

Molly shook her head. She probably should be furious for how much Sherlock had figured out, but she wasn't. He didn't have anyone else to connect to or bounce ideas off of. Worst of all that was that he trusted her and the man he was staying dead for was also the only other man Molly was protecting. Of course he couldn't find the last sniper.

"No, Sherlock, he's not gay," She said with e very gentle but firm tone. She didn't have to look up to see Sherlock's frown. She was talking to him more like a nurturing mother than like a woman who had a crush on him… but she didn't, not anymore. Jim's death had cleared that up. She only had space in her heart for two things: Grief and Sebastian.

"Your last boyfriend was."

"Jim wasn't gay," Molly said with exasperation.

"He played it very well," Sherlock pointed out.

"To try and fool you," Molly pointed out. "Trust me, he was a very engaged lover," she said, flipping through her notes.

"You had sex with James Moriarty?" Sherlock asked.

"What and you didn't?" Molly asked. She stared in horror at her own words, her eyes locked on Sherlock. Sherlock was just staring. It was like Jim had come right out of her mouth, stood up and waved hello.

"You spent a bit too much time around dear Jim from IT," Sherlock said.

"Possibly," Molly said, blushing. That seemed to make Sherlock relax. A blushing Molly was a normal Molly. Sherlock didn't quite know how to deal with a sarcastic Molly yet.

"Why is your new boyfriend not performing, then?" Sherlock asked.

Molly didn't bother to get angry or to tell Sherlock off. "My other boyfriend died a while ago," she said. "Not dear Jim from IT," she added. Jim from It wasn't her boyfriend… James Moriarty wasn't either. She was his occasional lover. She was his. He never belonged to her.

"Two boyfriends at once."

"Seb never cared," Molly said. "I think he liked it that way. Tom was his friend." Tom was the name of one of Jim's aliases.

"Dear me," Sherlock said. If anything he looked amused. He was reassessing her and the image he had of her before. "When did you become such a good liar?"

Molly shrugged. "Don't complain. I wouldn't be any use to you if I wasn't," she said. She'd learned from Jim. She knew that the two best types of lies were opposites. The one was the big lie: you tell a big lie and you say it loud enough and long enough that people start to believe it. The other was the half-truth: have only one lie and wrap it all in truth. For Jim's final lie he did both. Molly didn't think she'd ever be as a good as liar as Jim Moriarty, but then she had managed to cheat Jim Moriarty out of his final win.

"Just tell him that you love him," Sherlock said. "Even if you don't mean it he'll probably believe it. It only matters that he believes it."

* * *

Molly had the words heavy on her tongue when she got home. Sebastian had been living with her for almost two months now, but they hadn't so much as held hands. They didn't touch at all. She missed Jim, but he was gone and she could start to move on. But Sebastian was right there in front of her and she couldn't touch him at all. It was possibly the worst torture she'd ever experienced. She'd never told Jim that she loved him because Jim would have throne her away if she told him… but Sebastian wanted her to love him… she just didn't want to betray Jim.

"Are you leaving?" Molly asked when she saw that Sebastian had moved everything off the sofa. He washed the sheets, but this wasn't a sheet washing day.

"I uh…" Sebastian stopped what he was doing, looking for a moment like a deer caught in the headlights. The expression would have been cute if it didn't terrify Molly down to her toes. She knew that Sebastian was like a caged animal (as Jim had described him) a terrified Seb would lash out and try to escape.

"What?" She asked, hoping her voice didn't sound harsh.

"I thought that I might try… well… sleeping in your bed," Sebastian suggested. Molly stood mute for a while, her thoughts racing. It was such a fight every day just to call each other by their names and not to revert back to 'Colonel' and 'Ms. Hooper'. Sherlock had been wrong to think that Molly hoped to get sex out of Sebastian when she told him she loved him. She hoped he would just hold her, kiss her maybe. She wanted to try and move forward. She just hadn't expected this at all. "Molly… is this okay?" he asked.

"Yes… Seb…Sebastian do you really mean it?" she asked, not daring to even move or breath.

"Yes, I mean it," he said with a very uncomfortable smile. He closed the distance between them fairly easily. He reached up and touched her cheek. She could see it in his eyes. He too wanted to try and move on. He wanted to try living again. "Is that okay?"

"I love you so much Colonel Sebastian Moran," Molly whispered, feeling tears prick behind her eyes.

"What?" Sebastian asked, the word coming out more like a joke than a question.

"I love you… I am in love with you, and I have been for a long time… I think since you confessed to me… Sebastian, I really rather fancy you."

That surprised a laugh out Sebastian who dragged her into his arms and dipped her into a kiss that mimicked a very famous one from the end of WWII. Molly knew exactly what he was doing. Even for how sweet and lovable he could be, a part of Sebastian would always be military, always be loyalty, always be war. That was fine though, because he was a Tiger, and he wasn't going to let anyone into his territory who didn't belong, especially when Molly was around.

"I love you too," he said. She knew he felt like those words were a long time coming from his lips. They sounded wonderful to her ears.

"I love you too," she said, leaning up and catching his lips. "Would you like to go to bed, Sebastian… I want you to hold me."

The words had barely left her lips before he'd lifted her up and started to carry her to her-their bedroom. This was what she wanted, more than what she wanted. In that moment she felt like he life was perfect.


	23. Meticulous Procrastination

"Seb, be a darling and fetch me Jim's laptop," Richard said from the sofa he was lounging on. Sebastian tried very hard not to reach over and simply break Richard's neck. Molly had been moving about awkwardly in the morning, but she just seemed so happy that Sebastian was still hesitant to kill Richard. But he really wanted to.

"What for?" Sebastian asked.

"Business, of course," Richard said. "Angry Birds isn't going to sustain me for very long. You better be back by the time I've finished the game," he said with a wicked kind of grin.

"Yes, sir," Sebastian said. Richard had pouted when he'd been able to break into Jim's phone, but didn't have any memories or familiarity with the contents of the phone. He'd spent most of the afternoon trying to beat Jim's Angry Bird scores. Richard got really quiet and angry when he couldn't solve the puzzle and beat Jim's scores on the allotted number of times he'd set in his head. Richard hard flickered between moody and gleeful all day long and Sebastian was honestly ready to be out of the flat.

Sebastian hoped into his car, heading to the penthouse flat that Jim normally preferred. The place was still as clean of Mycroft Holmes' suspicions as it had been from the beginning. Jim's favorite safehouse was simultaneously the safest and the flashiest, always. Sebastian hadn't been back to the place since Richard's emergence and part of that came from the fact that Sebastian didn't want Richard there. Richard ruined everything. Those were the words that kept playing in Sebastian's head. Richard ruined everything and no matter how childish those words sounded to Sebastian, Sebastian knew they were true.

The penthouse was special. It was the place that Molly had always gone to see them. In Sebastian's mind it was still the place that Jim lived. It was the place that Sebastian expected to open his eyes and see Jim coming around the corner to dethrone his evil twin. It was special, and Sebastian didn't want Richard to see it. Richard didn't remember a lot, and as such Sebastian didn't think Richard would ever ask about this place. It simply wasn't important to him.

Sebastian relaxed the closer and closer he got to the penthouse and the further and further away he got from Richard's flat. Richard had kept Sebastian around like a pet all day long. It was making Sebastian's teeth itch. He'd washed all of Richard's dishes (because Richard, it turned out, worried about germs on his food to an unsettling degree), while getting a lecture on how sanitary hospital food was (very, surprisingly). Sebastian had to talk Richard out of growing his own food (because, Sir, you really won't have time for it). Sebastian ended up vacuuming the floor after he walked in from the grocery store without taking his shoes off (and had been informed he could walk around with his shoes on if the shoes were thoroughly washed first). Sebastian had never become so stir-crazy so fast and he'd even made a grocery run and a run to pick up dry cleaning during the day.

It was just Richard. Richard ordered him around like he was a dog. Not that Jim hadn't, but Jim only did that when he was trying to be funny or when he was seriously pissed off. Sebastian was a highly trained professional, and Jim never wasted him. Sebastian did Jim's cooking and grocery shopping most of the time because Jim needed to be sure what he ate would be safe. Richard ordered Sebastian to do the shopping and the cooking because he saw that as something Sebastian did. Richard couldn't even conceive of why Sebastian would want to get away from him.

Arriving at the penthouse was a blessing. Sebastian took his sweet time getting out of his car and took the stairs up instead of the elevator. He told himself it was for exercise and not his severe wish to avoid Richard. He'd get home with plenty of time before Molly showed up, that was all that mattered. Sebastian had more loyalty to Richard's face than to Richard himself.

The key had a wonderful familiar feel as it turned in the lock. Sebastian allowed himself to imagine for a second that he'd open the door and Jim would be there where Molly sitting at his side. Jim would give a quiet order to Sebastian and Sebastian would scoop Molly up and take her to bed. It wasn't exactly Sebastian's ideal. His ideal would be that Molly would only be his and Jim would be completely okay with that. But the reality had been as close to ideal as it could be, and then Jim went and shot himself. Sebastian would have strangled Jim for that if he could have. He might strangle Richard, but for other reasons.

The penthouse was dark and Sebastian knew no one had been there since him. He went to Jim's study. Jim locked it, but Sebastian had a key. Sebastian entered, glancing around. It was exactly as Jim had left it: with the filing cabinets of Jim's legal businesses and the closet full of books on every subject under the sun, to the desk where Jim did he actual work. The desk drawers also had the legal business files in them, but then these were often the companies that Jim funneled dirty money through to get to his very legal holdings.

Jim was a bit paranoid, but he knew very well why he should be. Sebastian just happened to know all of Jim's tricks. Well, not all of Jim's tricks, but Jim sometimes got the sniffles and didn't feel like getting his laptop from its hiding spot and so Sebastian had to figure out how to do it or risk losing some 'less important' fingers.

Sebastian sat in Jim's chair, reaching under the desk top, pulling the latch to release the false bottom which swung open. He then started feeling around under the false bottom until he found the right spot. He slammed on that spot with his fist and a second false bottom opened. This one had a little pull cord, which Sebastian pulled. A false side opened on one of inner sides of the desk drawers. Sebastian carefully closed the two false bottom before bending down to work on the final obstacle to the laptop. It was a safe with a combination. Sebastian had it memorized and it opened easily. Inside the same were a few files that Jim had to have on hand, and his laptop and charger. Sebastian took the laptop (and though tempted to leave it behind and need another trip back) and the charger as well. He shut the safe door and the false side.

Jim was a paranoid man. Even if anyone could get to his safehouse and could get into his study and could realize that there was anything in the desk and could get through all the different falses and could get the combination in without having the insides blown up, it would be unlikely that they could then turn the computer on and then get through the incredibly dense encryption that Jim used and all of Jim's levels of passwords, and the thumb scanner which Jim kept meticulously clean. But Jim still had all those safeguards. Sebastian wasn't even sure that Richard could remember enough to get through the computer's security. If he did even one thing wrong, the whole mess would come apart and the laptop would become a very expensive doorstop.

Sebastian found the laptop case, carefully settling the laptop (even without the information it probably cost more than most people in a developed country would make in a year) into its spots. Sebastian was as meticulous with the laptop as Jim would be, because Jim would be that meticulous. Sebastian strapped everything in its proper place, made sure that everything was zipped all the way and all the Velcro fitted exactly in place. It gave Sebastian the extra bonus of time away from Richard.

Sebastian glanced exited the study with the laptop. He shut off the lights as he left and locked the door. His mission was half way over, but even with all his stalling it wasn't taking up enough time. He glanced around the flat, wondering if there was anything he could bring with him that wouldn't have a chance of tipping Richard off that Sebastian had to go to a place he'd lived with Jim. Sebastian had already moved most of his clothes to Richard's place to avoid that. There were still things he wanted for Richard's flat, a certain DVD box set, and some kitchen utensils. But he couldn't risk bringing them back yet. Sebastian didn't want Richard getting suspicious and asking questions.

He could bring things back, but he'd have to lie and say he went to another safehouse on the way. Sebastian knew this was a stupid idea. Richard would want him to come right back. Richard just didn't know how far away the penthouse was so Sebastian could take his sweet time going to get the laptop. In the end, Sebastian decided to raid what was left of the food and make himself a sandwich.

Jim had liked peanut butter and jam. Sebastian had liked it too. Outside of the US, peanut butter was not very common, and really not that popular. Sebastian had a soft spot for it from his father having a soft spot for it. Jim just liked what he liked. Sebastian was thankful, because sometimes all he could get Jim to eat was something that not anyone could mess up: like a sandwich made of peanut butter and strawberry Jam. Sebastian made his sandwich, Jim on his mind.

"Did you really have to leave me this nut job?" he asked as he washed off the knife and spoon he'd used and put them away. He poured himself a glass of water, and ate over the kitchen sink. He knew how to cover his tracks very well. He ate slowly, chewing the actual recommended number of times per bite of food. It slowed down the eating process and supposedly made a person feel more full. He hadn't really been hungry to begin with and he wasn't hungry when he finished so he didn't care. It still didn't take much more than five minutes. Sebastian took his time sipping his water. When he finished he cleaned the plate and put it and the glass away. He washed the crumbs away and wiped down the counter. He didn't know when he'd get back and he didn't want ants.

He loitered around a bit more for a toilet stop and an extra long time washing his hands (while he idly thought Richard would be happy with the meticulous care Sebastian took getting under his nails). Finally Sebastian couldn't stall anymore. He took the laptop and left, flipping off the light and locking the door as he left. He took the stairs down to the car again, taking care with each step all the way down. His legs felt like they'd gotten a workout and that was fine. He just needed to take the extra scenic route to Richard's flat, driving at exactly the speed limit.

The ride back took almost exactly the same amount of time as the ride to the penthouse had taken. Sebastian took his time on the stairs again and took time to drop his keys a few times and fumble with them once he got to the door. Finally he just had to go in. "Back," he said a bit redundantly. That didn't matter though, because the flat was completely dark when Sebastian returned.

The frown he wore around Richard would probably come permanently plastered on his face. Sebastian entered and turned the lights on. "Richard?" he called. The lights being off was a bad sign. Nothing good would come of it. At the least, Richard was going to try and hop out and scare him (it wasn't funny even when Jim and done it). Sebastian's mind filled in all kinds of traps that Richard could have set for him. Richard hadn't backed off with the uncomfortable touches at all, and Sebastian wouldn't put it past Richard to drug him, tie Sebastian down, and just have his way. The thought made Sebastian shiver.

"Richard, where the hell are you?" Hey, he was playing Richard's best friend, right? He was doing it for the act, that was his excuse anyway. Sebastian walked to the sofa, dropping the laptop there very carefully when he saw that Richard wasn't lying there. Sebastian started his sweep of the house with the kitchen, then the bathrooms (both empty). He finally had to go back to the bedrooms. The instant he found them both empty he was filled with relief and then a terrible dread. Where the hell had Richard gone off to?

'_Don't love me alone with him,'_ Molly had said.

Sebastian felt his blood one cold. "That bastard," he hissed. He grabbed his keys and ran out, stopping only to lock the door. He punched the speed dial for Molly's phone as he sprinted down the stairs. "Come one, come on, come on, Molly, pick up."

"Hello, this is Molly Hooper, please leave me a message after the beep."

"Shit!" Sebastian shouted, slamming into his car. He drove out of the garage like a bat out of hell, headed for St. Barts, dialing Molly over and over as he went. What the hell had Richard done to Molly. Sebastian hoped they were at the hospital. If they weren't, then Sebastian wouldn't have any clue where they would be, where Richard would take Molly.

"Shit," Sebastian murmured when he finally gave up trying to get Molly to answer her phone.

* * *

A/N:

So, trying to get some stuff done. I feel sick, but I also feel like a failure for not having written anything in a while, so trying to get some stuff done. Sometimes you just have to push through it.

I've had the hardest time with this chapter. I wouldn't call it writer's block, since that implies that I'm out of ideas and I don't normally have chapter ideas. I normally just tell myself I'm going to write and then I sit down and do it. In this case it's more like I've reached the transition period point in this story and Richard (Rainbow-of-Fuck that he is) is trying me to force things I don't want to. I want happy endings, but Richard's two steps away from being so far into molester territory I'm not sure even Molly can steer him out.

As such, I didn't do the big confrontation I should have, because there's another very big confrontation I decided to set up for next chapter. This also means shorter chapter this time, because this is such a strug.


End file.
